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THE NIAGARA 



FRONTIER LANDMARKS 



ASSOCIATION 



1900-1905 



BUFFALO, N. Y.: 
PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION 

1906 



FROM 
GEORGE D. EMERSON 

99 WEST GENESEE ST. 
BUFFALO, N. Y 




TRUEMAN GARDNER AVERY 



I'resident Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, and 
President Buffalo Chapter S. A. R. 



THE NIAGARA 

FRONTIER LANDMARKS 

ASSOCIATION 



A RECORD OF ITS WORK 



EDITED BY 



GEORGE DOUGLAS EMERSON 

SECRETARY 



BUFFALO, N. Y. : 

PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION 

1906 






LIBHARY of CONGRESS 

Two Cooies Received 

AUG 3 1906 

Cooyriifnt Entry 



ASS 



CL 



COPY B 



Xc, No. 

76 



Copyright, 1906 
By GEORGE DOUGLAS EMERSON 



INTRODUCTION, 



THIS volume has been prepared and is issued in ac- 
quiescence to a very general request that the record 
of the work of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks 
Association be preserved in a permanent form. 

This work, inaugurated six years ago, has been carried 
forward by an association of patriotic men and women who 
have most generously given time, study and thought, as well 
as means, to its accomplishment. It has been emphatically 
a labor of love, as no one has been paid one penny for his 
or her services, and a spirit of harmony and friendly cour- 
tesy has prevailed, the recollection of which is to all a de- 
lightful memory. In carrying out the design of the asso- 
ciation many chapters of local history have been made more 
prominent and the very important part which the Niagara 
Frontier has played in the history of our country we trust 
brought more vividly to the attention of the student of his- 
tory and especially to the residents along the border line. If 
its history is better understood or more clearly defined by 
the memorials which the Association from time to time has 
placed, marking historical sites, its members will be more 
than repaid for all their endeavors. 

So many have contributed to make the work of the Asso- 
ciation a success, it would be invidious here to attempt to 
mention names, but in the record, at some point, mention is 
made of the part borne by each one who has participated in 
its ceremonies and exercises so far as it has been possible 



to ascertain and keep the record. If any are omitted their 
own modesty in not making themselves better known will 
account in most cases for the omission. To one and all who 
have thus generously assisted, the Association, in this, its 
published record, extends hearty thanks. 

There is considerable work yet remaining for the Asso- 
ciation, but it will be accomplished. Its present faithful 
laborers may drop out or pass away, but if necessary, in the 
coming years, other hands will take up the task and in a not 
distant future be able to issue another volume containing 
chapters equally as fascinating and full of interest as these 
which it has been our pleasure to record. 

The Editor. 

Buffalo, N. Y., July i, 1906. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Introduction 

Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association i 

Griffon Shipyard 4 

St. John House 26 

Battle of Black Rock 32 

Devil's Hole Massacre 43 

Buffalo's First School House 66 

Barton-Wheeler Tablet 72 

Fort Tompkins 87 

Court House Tablet 97 

Officers, Committees and Directors 109-116 

Treasurer's Reports 1 17-122 

Report Committee on Sites 123 

Reports Executive Committee 140-144 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 



Trueman Gardner Avery Frontispiece ' 

La Salle Tablet and Group Opposite page 4 . 

Robert Cavelier De La Salle " 12 

Hon. Peter A. Porter " 20 

St. John House Tablet and Group " 26 -- 

SCAJAQUADA CrEEX BrIDGE " Z^. 

George Douglas Emerson " 38/ 

George Alfred Stringer " 43^ 

Devil's Hole Tablet and Group " 52' 

Mrs. John Miller Horton " S^-' 

Hon. Herbert P. Bissell " 61 ^ 

First School House Tablet " 66^ 

Barton-Wheeler Homestead " "72 

Frank H. Se\t:rance " 83 

Fort Tompkins Tablet " 87 

Hon. W. Caryl Ely " 90 

Un\t;iling Fort Tompkins Tablet " 94 

Old Court House and Jail " 97 ' 

Court House Tablet " 103 , 

Philip Sherwood Smith " ic8 

Indian Cemetery, Buffam Street " 123 

Seneca Mission House " 138 • 



THE NIAGARA 

FRONTIER LANDMARKS 

ASSOCIATION. 



The Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association had its 
origin in a meeting of the Buffalo Chapter of the Empire 
State Society, Sons of the American Revolution, held at the 
Buffalo Club on the evening of April 23, 1900. At that 
meeting a resolution, proposed by the Hon. W. Caryl Ely, 
was adopted, which called for the appointment of a commit- 
tee of five, from Buffalo Chapter, S. A. R., who should 
cooperate with committees from other patriotic and his- 
torical societies "that may be interested in considering a plan 
for locating, along the Niagara Frontier, suitable monu- 
ments to commemorate historical events." A committee was 
appointed by Trueman G. Avery, president of the Buf- 
falo Chapter; and, soon thereafter, committees were ap- 
pointed by other organizations. Before the work of mark- 
ing sites was entered upon, nine organizations were repre- 
sented in the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, by 
committees. 

A meeting for organization was held at the residence of 
Trueman G. Avery in Buffalo, November 14, 1900, at which 
were present representatives of the Sons of the American 
Revolution, Sons of the Revolution, Daughters of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, Children of the American Revolution, the 
Society of Colonial Wars, and the Buffalo Historical Society. 
The cooperation of the Society of the War of 181 2, the 
Niagara Frontier Historical Society, and the Men's Club of 
Lewiston was pledged ; and from that date these nine organi- 



2 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

zations have worked together, through their committees, in 
prosecution of the proposed work, while correspondence 
has been carried on with the Ontario Historical Society, 
regarding the marking of sites on the Canadian side of the 
Niagara. 

At the meeting November 14, 1900, Trueman G. Avery 
was made chairman and George D. Emerson secretary. 
Committees on sites and organization were named. At a 
meeting held December 26, 1900, these committees were 
enlarged and officers were chosen as follows: Chairman, 
Trueman G. Avery ; Vice-Chairman, Mrs. John Miller Hor- 
ton; Secretary, George D. Emerson; Treasurer, PhiUp S. 
Smith. 

The original committee on sites was continued and in 
addition committees on finance and tablets were also ap- 
pointed and with sHght changes and additions these commit- 
tees have remained as first named. At the annual meeting 
held at the residence of the Chairman, Mr. Avery, Novem- 
ber 13, 1902, the full board of officers was reelected for the 
years 1902-1903. At this meeting there was also adopted a 
resolution authorizing each society affiliated with the Asso- 
ciation to appoint two additional representatives. 

Acting on a suggestion in the report of the Committee 
on Sites, it was early decided that the first site to be marked 
should be the spot where the Griffon was built, and launched 
in May, 1679. This is on the farm of Jackson Angevine 
near the village of La Salle, in Niagara County, and on the 
margin of the arm of the Niagara known as the Little 
Niagara, just south of the mouth of Cayuga Creek. On the 
afternoon of August 7, 190 1, this spot was visited by many 
members of the Landmarks Association, for a celebration of 
the 222d anniversary of the sailing of the Griffon. Mrs. 
John Miller Horton drove a stake to fix the site of the monu- 
ment ; the Hon. Peter A. Porter made a brief address on the 
history of the place, and resolutions were adopted declaring 
that the Association would mark the site with a suitable 
monument. 

At the next meeting of the Association, May 9, 1902, Mr. 
George D. Emerson, chairman of the Committee on Tablets, 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 3 

submitted sketches for tablets for marking the site of the 
first schoolhouse in Buffalo, the St. John house, and the 
Battle of Black Rock ; and reported that the Niagara Fron- 
tier Historical Society of Niagara Falls offered to supply a 
boulder monument and suitable bronze tablet for the Grif- 
fon site. This offer was accepted, and May 24, 1902, was 
named as the day for the dedication. 

In addition to these four sites the Niagara Gorge Rail- 
road Company purchased and presented to the Association 
a tablet, marking the site of the Devil's Hole massacre, Sep- 
tember 14, 1763, which was unveiled with appropriate cere- 
monies September 13, 1902. 

Mrs. Albert J. Wheeler also presented to the Association 
a tablet to mark the spot at Lewiston, where General Win- 
field Scott stationed a battery at the opening of the battle 
of Queenston, October 13, 1812, which was unveiled with 
interesting exercises, June 20, 1903, and the International 
Railway Company, through its President, the Hon. W. Caryl 
Ely, presented a handsome tablet to mark the site of Fort 
Tompkins, an important fortification of the war of 1812. 
This tablet was unveiled with the usual ceremonies Septem- 
ber 26, 1903. 

In 1904, Buffalo Chapter, Daughters of the War of 1812, 
and the Society of Mayflower descendants became affiliated 
with the Landmarks Association. 

September 9, 1905, the eighth tablet erected by the Asso- 
ciation was unveiled. It occupies a prominent position on 
the Buffalo Library Building, marking the site of the first 
court houses of Erie and Niagara Counties. 

During 1905 three members of the Order of the Cin- 
cinnati, a patriotic society, dating from the close of the Revo- 
lutionary War, were added to the membership of the Land- 
marks Association. 

At the annual meetings of the Association held in 1903, 
1904 and 1905, Trueman G. Avery was unanimously re- 
elected president, Mrs. John Miller Horton, vice-president, 
George D. Emerson, secretary, and Philip S. Smith, treas- 
urer. 



NIAGARA FRONTIER 

THE GRIFFON SHIPYARD 

TABLET UNVEILED MAY 24, 1902 



In accordance with the plans of the Association, the first 
tablet was unveiled May 24, 1902, commemorating the 
building and launching, in the winter and spring of 1679, of 
De La Salle's vessel "The Griffon," the first vessel to sail 
the upper lakes. 

The ceremonies were attended by a large and interested 
concourse of people, who gathered from Buffalo, Niagara 
Falls, Lewiston and the intervening territory. 

A large boulder had been transported from near the Falls 
and placed in front, and a little to the north of the Angevine 
residence, at La Salle, Niagara County, not far from the 
main highway and railway tracks. Upon this boulder the 
tablet had been affixed, bearing the following inscription : 

Hereabout, in May, 1679, 

Robert Cavelier De La Salle 

Built the Griffon of Sixty Tons 

Burthen," the First Vessel 

To Sail the Upper Lakes. 



Erected by Niagara Frontier Historical Society 

and 

Presented to Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 

May, 1902. 

The day was a charming one, and the exercises in close 
proximity to the Niagara River, and on such historic ground, 
at once impressive and inspiring. 

Shortly after three o'clock the meeting was called to 
order by Trueman G. Avery, Esq., chairman of the Land- 
marks Association. Mr. Avery stated briefly the purpose 
of the gathering, and introduced the Rev. Luke A. Grace, 




THE LA SALLE TABLET, AND GROUP AT THE UNVEILING 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 5 

C. M., of Niagara University, who pronounced the follow- 
ing invocation : 

Before Thy face, all powerful Father, Who holdest in 
the hollow of Thy hand the destiny of the atom and of 
nations, we have presumed to assemble as a reverent, a 
thankful people. On this historic spot, hallowed by the 
footprints of a devoted missionary who explored the wild- 
ness of nature hereabout that he might soften it by Reli- 
gion's sacred touch, we bend before Thee in filial love, grate- 
ful for Thy unspeakable mercies towards us. 

Through Thy bounty the blessings of civilization, of 
enlightenment, have been showered upon this region, once 
the haunt of the untamed savage. Improvement, with its 
attendant commercial prosperity, has been Thy temporal 
blessing unto us in so large a measure that our shores are 
fast becoming the Mecca of all who do reverence at the 
shrine of material greatness. Yet, O Father of us all, here 
where Thy wondrous works proclaim Thy glory, where the 
Cataract's diapason is an echo of Thy eternal Harmonies ; 
here where the tumultuous Niagara, rushing towards the 
sea, reminds us that our days are fast merging into the 
fathomless ocean of eternity, we pray Thee : 

Keep us poor of spirit amid our possessions, lowly amid 
our greatness, diffident of ourselves, confident in Thee amid 
our conquests. We bow our heads before Thee and most 
humbly beseech Thee to hear us. From pride of life and 
lust for vain things, O God deliver us. From infidelity and 
ingratitude, from loftiness of spirit which breeds rebellion 
to Thy law, O God deliver us. From injustice to ourselves, 
our friends, our enemies ; from hardness of heart which 
yields not at the cry of distress, from selfishness which turns 
the sweat of the laborer into the coin of tribute unto luxury, 
O God deliver us. From that modern idolatry which leads 
men to bow down before the Moloch of trade, forgetting the 
sacredness of Thy altars and Thy law, O Father deliver us. 

For us, indeed, the desert has been made to blossom as 
the rose, the wilderness to yield more than the scriptural 
milk and honey. That great work of Thy hands, the mighty 



6 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

cataract, imperious for ages in its God-given freedom, has 
been ensnared at last and harnessed to the yoke of industry 
through the cunning of puny man. Let us not stand against 
Thee, O God, as a rival power. Let us not imitate Lucifer, 
that rebel angel, who blasphemously said : "I will ascend 
above the height of the clouds : I will be like the Most 
High." 

The wizard touch of genius hath) indeed, made this 
region to glow in splendor like unto the stars of heaven. 
Yet, O Father, we pray Thee to make us humble before Thy 
mightiness ; make us meek that we may assuage Thy wrath 
at our many iniquities; make us just, and chaste, and charit- 
able. These blessings we implore of Thee through Thy 
Divine Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Air. Jackson Angevine, the owner of the farm, upon 
which the exercises were held, then stepped forward and 
handed to Mr. Avery a deed, conveying a plot of ground 
eight feet square upon which the boulder and tablet rested. 

The Hon. Peter A. Porter, on behalf of the Niagara 
Frontier Historical Society, in a few well-chosen remarks, 
tendered the boulder and tablet to the Niagara Frontier 
Landmarks Association and called upon Mrs. John Miller 
Horton, who gracefully drew aside the large flag covering 
the tablet, exposing it to view. 

In making his address Mr. Porter said : 

The Niagara Frontier Historical Society was formed 
some five years ago, mainly through the efforts of Mr. Jos- 
eph Sturdy, and one of his first suggestions was that we 
should mark the site where La Salle built the historic Grif- 
fon. He did not live to see his suggestion carried out, but 
today that result is accomplished. As we are assembled at 
the birthplace of American inland navigation, we might 
appropriately call it the cradle of the commerce of the 
continent. 

Henceforth this spot, the earliest one of truly interna- 
tional historic importance on the frontier, and whose exact 
location was determined by the great historian of our Niag- 
ara region, the late Orsamus H. Marshall, shall not be 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 7 

unknown to the passersby of today nor to future genera- 
tions. Our society, seeking to aid in the task which the 
Landmarks Association has undertaken, desired to erect this 
memorial as our contribution to the good work. 

It is a boulder found in this vicinity, and it is a pleasant 
thought, and by no means an improbable one, that on his 
way from Lewiston to this place in 1679 La Salle himself 
may have passed close to, and may even have gazed upon, 
this very rock, which, appropriately inscribed, we have set 
up as the first monument on this frontier to him, the earhest 
white man to thoroughly explore our region, to appreciate 
its advantages, and still the most picturesque figure of our 
local history. 

In behalf of the Niagara Frontier Historical Society, and 
by its direction, I now present this monument to the Land- 
marks Association and ask at their hands its acceptance and 
formal dedication. 

George D. Emerson, Secretary of the Landmarks Asso- 
ciation, accepted the boulder and tablet in the name of the 
Association, speaking as follows : 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — On the 28th 
day of November, 1863, a most impressive ceremony was 
held. On that day, a great battle field of the Civil War, 
which shall be historic while time endures, was dedicated 
as a national military cemetery. It was the occasion upon 
which President Abraham Lincoln, the great civic ruler of 
all the ages, gave utterance to that memorable address which 
shall be rehearsed and repeated as long as human language 
is written or spoken. In that address, referring to the men 
who fought at Gettysburg, he said, "The world will little 
note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never 
forget what they did here." As we are assembled today, 
within sight of that majestic river which for ages has rolled 
on its ceaseless course — under the glorious sunlight of this 
beautiful afternoon — face to face, as we gaze upon yonder 
memorial, with two hundred and twenty-three years of 
American history — a similar sentiment comes to my mind, 
and like Banquo's ghost will not down. 



8 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

The Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association was organ- 
ized a number of months ago for the purpose of locating 
and marking by tablets or monuments historic sites along 
the Niagara Frontier. It was deemed wise by those having 
the movement in charge that not only the events and occur- 
ences of our frontier history should be recorded, but that 
the identity of their happening should, also be preserved. 
The field is a rich one, but our work after all is only a labor 
of love. We cannot add to the history of these romantic 
surroundings ; we cannot call up from the misty past one 
character not already emblazoned in the records of the past 
two centuries, nor can we add any glory to the heroic men 
who, as missionaries of the cross, as tradesmen or agricul- 
turists or as soldiers fighting under the flag of their country, 
whether each in his turn bore allegiance to the lilies of 
France or the Union Jack of old England or the stars and 
stripes, but who in their own day and generation penetrated 
the wilderness, heard the roar of yonder mighty cataract, 
subdued the savage and aided in the development of that 
magnificent civilization we see on every hand all about us. 

Members of the Niagara Frontier Historical Society, you 
have in a most friendly and generous way anticipated one 
of the fondest dreams of the Landmarks Association. From 
the hour of its inception, to mark the spot from which was 
launched the first boat built by white men around these 
waters and the first vessel to sail the upper lakes has been 
foremost in the minds of its members and among the first 
points listed for commemoration. Today in the midst of 
these pleasant environments, we witness the full materializa- 
tion of our dreams. 

It is my privilege, on behalf of the Niagara Frontier 
Landmarks Association to accept from you this memorial. 
To say we thank you and profoundly appreciate your inter- 
est in the cause only faintly expresses our feelings. Here- 
tofore, our work has seemed all in the future and tablets 
and monuments among the things yet to be. By this one 
act you have, as it were, drawn aside the veil that separates 
us from the future and it now seems the present wherein 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 9 

anticipations have become realizations. As the initiatory 
step in what we trust will be an interesting series of dedica- 
tory ceremonies, it is worthy of a warm place in our affec- 
tions, to be treasured while memory retains her hold upon 
the things of the past. Again, in the name of the Landmarks 
Association, I thank you and accept not only for today, but 
for all time, the memorial of an event on our own frontier 
which, unintentionally perhaps, but under Divine Provi- 
dence, marked an epoch in human history. True, indeed, 
they builded better than they knew. 

May this modest monument, standing near the boundary 
line between two branches of the great English-speaking 
peoples of the world, in the coming years, in the ebb and 
flow of the generations who shall yet tread this continent, 
to all who shall gaze upon it, be an inspiration leading them 
to higher and grander accomplishments than any age which 
preceded them. 

The remainder of the exercises consisted of an historical 
address by Prof. Thomas Bailey Lovell, LL. D., of the Niag- 
ara Falls High School ; a poem by Charles W. Wilcox, Esq., 
of Niagara Falls ; an address upon the commercial develop- 
ment of the West by the Hon. Herbert P. Bissell of Buffalo ; 
the song "America" by the entire assemblage, with Judge 
George A. Lewis of Buffalo as leader; and benediction by 
the Rev. Luke A. Grace, C. M. 



ADDRESS. 

By Prof. Thomas Bailey Lovell, LL. D. 
Of Niagara Frontier Historical Society, Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

We are, in these opening years of the twentieth century, 
the inheritors of a vast interest, a mighty power, an inde- 
terminable wealth, and an infinite responsibility. 

Nearly six thousand years have been laid on the shelves 
of eternity, since man began the herculean task of subduing 
the earth that it might contribute to the prolongation of 
his life and to his comfort and happiness in the world. 



10 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

During this period, many millions of human beings have 
felt the warmth of the summer air, and the chill blasts of 
the wintry winds, and, after "life's fitful fever," they have 
returned to their native dust, and been blown about the 
plains. 

Out from the confusion of names and the cross pur- 
poses of these millions, there rises the one form, the idealized 
character, the composite hero, who represents the statesman, 
the philanthropist, the brave leader in defence of home and 
flag, the discover who opens new lands for new kingdoms 
and navigates new rivers and lakes for a new people and a 
new commerce, and' the man of God who follows the trail 
of the discoverer to win a strange people to the truths of 
religion. 

It is impossible to remember or record all the names of 
those who have contributed to the extraordinary develop- 
ment of this great continent. 

Victor Hugo says : "The human mind has a summit, the 
ideal ; to this summit God descends, man rises." 

The composite hero of mankind in subsequent centuries 
is elevated to this touch with descending divinity. This 
hero elevates with himself all influences, times, causes and 
persons contributing to the exalted position. Again our 
French author says : "From the beginning of human tra- 
dition men of force have alone glittered in the empyrean 
of history; theirs was the sole supremacy. Under the 
various names of king, emperor, chief, captain, prince, — 
epitomized in the word "hero," — this apocalyptic group 
shone resplendent." 

The hero of any group of years in any century must 
partake of the coloring of those years. He must be the 
product of its thought as expressed in its literature, of its 
commerce expressed in desire for new avenues of trade, of 
its vitality shown in municipal and national questions that 
force themselves to the front. 

The hero is the evolution of the severe thought and of 
the contact of the minds of his age. A study of him and 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 11 

his environment reveals the briUiant glow of the Hght of 
that time and the exquisite coloring of the thought of that 
day. 

The hero is an object of search by the youth of subse- 
quent times and a subject of study by the man of earnest 
investigation. 

Rivers, mountains, valleys and cities are named for him, 
and children grow to manhood with added influence because 
of the heroic praenomen of which they are properly proud. 

Emerson says : "All ranks pay a pure homage to the 
hero of the day, from Coriolanus to Pitt, Lafayette, Wel- 
lington and the heroes of our own country. The people 
cannot see him enough. Hear the shouts in the street! 
They delight in a man. Here is a head and a trunk ! What 
a front! What eyes! Atlantean shoulders and the whole 
carriage heroic with equal inward force to guide the great 
machine. Mankind have in all ages attached themselves 
to a few persons, who either by the quality of the idea 
they embodied or by the largeness of their reception were 
entitled to the position of leaders, lawgivers, heroes." We 
may add to these three classes of Emerson, discoverers. 

"Great men stand for facts," but the hero for principles 
emblazoned by war, or for the crystalized thought of his 
nation or tribe. 

The hero of all time, may be rejected by his environ- 
ment, and his fellow-men may fail to find in him a reflec- 
tion of their ephemeral thoughts. He rises above them in 
his representative capacity, and like the statue of liberty 
he holds a light for the procession of the nations at his feet. 

A hero is not made by any premeditated adjustment of 
the laws of man's relationship to man. He is not placed 
on the pedestal of glory by any circumscribed group of fol- 
lowers. He must, sometime, be the recognized leader in his 
department, standing for the highest thought of his time. 
He must be the spontaneous representative of battle con- 
flicts, forensic engagements, civic disputes, self-endurance 
and determination in his march for discovery, humility and 
personal sacrifice in carrying knowledge of divine truth to 



12 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

hitherto inaccessible peoples. The recognition of heroship 
must spring in the national life from the self-active instincts 
of the whole people. 

The world is full of names about which there is a halo 
of glory, but concerning the history of the individual there 
may be but little known by the passing multitude. 

In the words Athens, Rome, there is crystalized art, lit- 
erature, bravery, war. Out of the procession of the great 
ones passing by the Acropolis of Athens from Olympiad to 
Olympiad a few are selected by the law of the survival of 
the fittest, and their names become the watchwords of the 
world in their fields. Pericles of war, wisdom, and work 
the inspiration. Xenophon of rulership and successful lead- 
ership the fullest expression. Columbus of adventure and 
discovery, the greatest exponent. Hampden of untitled 
nobility, the chief representative. Washington of statesman- 
ship, of generalship, of rulership, facile princeps, easily 
chief. 

These men have become the ideals and the idols of their 
times. In them is crystalized the epoch-making forces of 
the age, and Saul-like they stand head and shoulders above 
their fellow-men. 

From the myriad of great men, from the myriad of bene- 
factors of the human race, from the thousands of discovers 
who have added new worlds to human thought let us lift 
high with great acclaim, the hero of Frontenac, the hero of 
the Griffon, the hero of the lakes, the hero of the rivers to 
the gulf, the hero of Louisiana, the hero of Trinity River. 

Robert Cavalier Sieur de la Salle was born in 1643 ^"d 
died, killed by one of his company, on the 19th of March, 
1687, on the banks of Trinity River in Texas. 

He was authorized by letters patent, signed by Louis 
XIV, on the 12th of May, 1678, to discover the western 
part of this country, then known as New France, and to 
find a passage to Mexico. 

Previous to the issue of this patent he had made his 
first passage from France to this land about the year 1667. 
The thought of Europe was towards this country, and great 




ROBERT, CAVELIER DE LA SALLE 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 13 

expectations were raised concerning wealth and honor to 
the successful adventurers. 

The story of Columbus, the narrative of De Soto, and 
the trend of thought of the seventeenth century, influenced 
our hero, and La Salle taking his discharge from the semin- 
ary of the Jesuits, determined to follow the western sun and 
become a discoverer. 

Father Hennepin, whose name is associated with that of 
our hero, says of him, "He was a Norman born, a man of 
great conduct and profound policy." It was Father Hen- 
nepin who, about the time La Salle received this patent from 
Louis XIV, wTote his remarkable description of Niagara 
Falls, the thunder of whose terrible roar, he said, could be 
heard at a distance of fifteen leagues. 

It was on the 5th of December, 1678, that Father Hen- 
nepin, with his companions on board a brigantine of ten 
tons burden, entered the mouth of Niagara River, into which 
no such ship had entered before. They sang a Te Deum 
and other prayers to return thanks to God Almighty for 
a prosperous voyage. 

I beg leave to quote now from Father Hennepin's own 
narrative printed in 1699: 

"On the 14th of January, 1679, we arrived at our habita- 
tion of Niagara, weary of the fatigues of our voyage. On 
the 20th arrived M. de la Salle from Fort Frontenac (now 
Kingston), from whence he was sent with a great barque 
to supply us with provisions, rigging, and tackling for the 
ship, we designed to build at the mouth of Lake Erie. 

"The barque was cast away on the southern coast of 
Ontario and all supplies were lost. On the 22d of the month, 
we went two leagues above the great fall of Niagara, where 
we made a dock for building the ship we wanted for the 
voyage. This was the most convenient place we could pitch 
upon, being upon a river which falls into the strait between 
the Lake Erie and the great fall of Niagara. The 26th 
the keel of the ship and some other pieces being readv M. 
de la Salle sent the master carpenter to desire me to drive 
in the first pin ; but my profession obliging me to decline 



14 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

that honor he did it himself, and promised ten Louis d'or's 
to encourage the carpenter, and further the work." 

M. de la Salle was obliged to return on urgent business 
to Fort Frontenac, and Father Hennepin accompanied him 
to the mouth of the Niagara River, leaving de la Salle to 
continue his journey afoot for eighty leagues. 

"When I returned to our dock I understood that most 
of the Iroquois were gone to wage war with a nation on 
the other side of the Lake Erie. In the mean time our men 
continued with great application to build our ship. . . . 
Two savages we had taken into our service went all this 
while hunting and supplied us with wild goats and other 
beasts for our subsistence, which encouraged our workmen 
to go on with their work more briskly than before, insomuch 
that in a short time our ship was in a readiness to be 
launched; which we did after having blessed the same 
according to the use of our church of Rome. We made 
all haste to get it afloat, although not altogether finished, 
to prevent the designs of the natives who had resolved to 
burn it. 

The ship was called the Griffon (Le Griffon ), alluding 
to the arms of Court Frontenac which have two Griffons 
for supporters ; and besides M. de la Salle used to say of 
this ship, while yet upon the stocks, that he would miake 
the Griffon above the ravens. We fired three guns, and sung 
Te Deum, which was attended with loud acclamations of 
joy, of which those of the Iroquois, who were accidentally 
present at this ceremony, were also partakers. Our men 
immediately quitted their cabins of rinds of trees, and 
hanged their hammocks under the deck of the ship, there 
to lie with more security than ashore. We did the like, 
insomuch that the very same day we were all on board, and 
thereby out of the reach of the insults of the savages. 

The Iroquois returning were mightily surprised to see 
our ship afloat, and called us Otkon, meaning, most pene- 
trating wits. They could not comprehend how in so short 
a time we had been able to build so great a ship, though it 
was but sixtv tons. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 15 

Having conquered some discouragements I went up in 
a canoe with two savages to Lake Erie, and found that a 
ship with a brisk gale might sail up the lake, 
and that therefore with a strong north, or northeast wind, 
we might bring our ship into the Lake Erie. 

I was obliged to return to Fort Frontenac to bring two 
monks of my own order to assist me in the function of my 
ministry. I returned and on the 4th of July was at our 
dock, but did not find our ship. In an injured canoe we 
went up the river and found her well rigged and ready 
fitted out with the necessaries for sailing within a league 
of the pleasant Lake Erie. She carried five guns. The 
beak head was adorned with a flying griffon, and an eagle 
above it, and the rest of the ship had the same ornaments 
as men-of-war used to have. The Iroquois then returning 
from their expedition were surprised to see so big a ship. 

, . . This obliged them to say, 'Gannorom,' how 
wonderful !" 

After some difficulties and some delays they set sail on 
the 7th of August, 1679, on the first most memorable voy- 
age of the great lakes, with 34 men. After many surprises, 
delays, and discouragements this ship with its little com- 
pany, the illustrious predecessor of such an innumerable 
number of massive ships of the lakes comes to anchor in 
Green Bay on the northwestern shore of Lake Michigan. 

The ship was to return laden with furs, etc., but having 
started upon her return trip, she was seen by some savages 
to be tossed by a violent storm in such a manner that the 
men were never heard of and the ship was lost. 

La Salle, not discouraged, continued his journey in 
canoes, at a later period, touched at the place now known 
as Chicago, "making a long portage to the Illinois River, 
descended it to the Mississippi, which he followed to its 
mouth where he set up a cross and the arms of France, 
April 9, 1682," calling all the country north and west 
Louisiana. 

What inspiring thoughts filled the mind of the intrepid 
explorer as he contemplated the vast country known as 



16 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

New France. Only he understands its resources. Could 
the great and titled men of France have realized in part 
that a new empire was theirs for the taking possession, how 
different would the map of America be, and perhaps how 
changed would be the destinies of European countries. 

Mr. Fiske, the historian, says : "As Champlain was the 
founder of New France with his Canadian colony, so La 
Salle gave to New France its widest extension with his 
acquisition of Louisiana. Compared with this enormous 
stretch of territory, the strip of English colonies along the 
Atlantic coast would seem very narrow." 

"This was the noble culmination of his career as an 
explorer. He had accomplished a fitting result to the dis- 
covery of Columbus, he had revealed the grandeur of the 
discovery of De Soto, and claimed the rights of the river 
and its tributaries, for King Louis XIV for whom he named 
this vast tract." 

It remained for a subsequent ruler of France (fortunate 
for the United States) to sell this valuable domain for the 
comparative small sum of fifteen million dollars. 

M. de la Salle returned to France to organize another 
expedition, but the results were insignificant and after about 
two years on the banks of the River Trinity in Texas he 
was shot by one of his company. Hennepin says, "Father 
Anastasi, who was near La Salle, administered the consola- 
tion of his church, La Salle, unable to speak, pressing the 
good father's hand to signify that he understood him and 
died in about an hour. The father dug his grave, buried 
him and erected a cross over his remains." 

Mr. Bancroft says : "For force of will and vast concep- 
tions, for various knowledge and quick adaption of his 
genius to untried circumstances, for a sublime magnanimity 
that resigned itself to the will of heaven and yet triumphed 
over affliction by energy of purpose, and unfaltering hopes 
he had no superior among his countrjnnen." 

Two hundred and twenty-three years ago a group of 
about thirty men, among whom were Robert Cavalier Sieur 
de la Salle and Father Hennepin, were looking upon the 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 17 

keel of the vessel resting upon the stocks situated here, with 
some pieces of finished timber waiting to be placed in posi- 
tion. Yonder was the great river, whose murmuring waters 
had never listened to the voice of worship ; the great trees 
of the virgin forest enclosed the scene and a few wondering 
Iroquois, with amazed look whose only thought could be 
expressed by their own word, "Gannorom," — wonderful, — 
formed the connecting link between that which was to come 
and that which was to pass. 

After two centuries and a quarter we are to dedicate this 
site and to commemorate his work. 

Mr. O. Turner, in his history of the Holland Purchase, 
published in 1849, fifty-three years ago, gives expression to 
this prophetic wish : "Were we prone as we should be dur- 
ably to commemorate the great events that have marked our 
progress, here and there in fitting localities, more monu- 
ments would be raised as tributes to our history and the 
memory of those who have acted a conspicuous part in it. 

Upon the banks of our noble river, within sight of the 
falls, a shaft from our quarries would soon designate the 
spot where the Griffon was built and launched ; upon its 
base the name of La Salle, and a brief inscription that would 
commemorate the pioneer advent of our vast and increasing 
lake commerce." 

In obedience to that wish, written fifty-three years ago, 
we are here to dedicate this monument and to uncover the 
tablet which contains the name of La Salle, the honored 
pioneer and the intrepid discoverer. 



18 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

POEM 
By Charles W. Wilcox, Esq. 



THE MAYFLOWER AND THE GRIFFON. 

The winds of December were scattering the snow 
From the dark waving trees to the valleys below; 
And ocean's rude waves, with their deep, sullen roar 
Were dashing their crests 'gainst the ice-fettered shore. 
Old Winter had breathed out his frost-laden breath, 
Enshrouding the earth in a mantle of death, 
When the gallant Mayflower, with her patriot band. 
First parted the waters of Plymouth's wild strand. 

O'er her tempest-tossed decks the fierce billows had passed. 

While through her torn sails swept the wild howling blast; 

And tears of deep anguish had frequently flowed 

As slowly o'er ocean's dark waters they rode. 

From the green shores of England, from kindred and home. 

To the land of the forest and savage they come ; 

To build there an altar for Liberty's fire. 

And offer their lives on the hallowed pyre. 

Here were maidens as pure as the morning's first beam, 

From whose beauteous brows gems of intellect gleam; 

And matrons whose hearts were as brave and as true 

As warrior, or knight, or king ever knew. 

There were sinewy arms by true manhood made brave 

To scorn the position of tyranny's slave; 

Working out for themselves and their children made free, 

A glorious future — a grand destiny. 

The years roll away, and the centuries glide; 
Yet onward, still on — sweeps humanity's tide. 
Neither famine, nor war, nor oppression can stay 
Fair freedom's grand march on her limitless way. 
Like the leaflets of autumn the forests recede, 
While the victims of strife and contention may bleed ; 
Yet her temples still rise, and her sheltering domes 
Give peace and protection to millions of homes. 



LANDMARKS- ASSOCIATION. 19 

Fair Liberty's light, gleaming fearless and bold, 

Awakens the kingdoms and monarchies old; 

Uplifting a halo of glory so true 

All the nations of earth admiring may view. 

From Atlantic's stern coast to Pacific's wild strand 

Columbia's millions in unison stand; 

Still pointing with pride to the spirit that gave 

Our forefathers courage to cross the wild wave. 

Another scene we celebrate — 
Another march to high estate. 
This ground, historic, where we stand, 
The scene of action — thrilling, grand! 
This stream through ages vast and dim 
Was only known and seen by Him 
Who bade its mighty torrents roll 
And gave to man a living soul. 
Its age all parallel forbids. 
More ancient than the pyramids ; 
And yet today its hidden might 
Has filled the world with new delight; 
And clashing wheels and spindles hum 
That all these waiting years were dumb ; 
Commence with glee the noisy strife 
That onward bears the tide of life. 
Those dusky forms that roamed at will 
Primeval forests dark and still, 
Who hear the mighty spirit's sound 
When thunders shake the trembling ground; 
Who see His glance upon them bend 
When lightning's lance the heavens rend; 
Along these banks 'neath sheltering shade, 
Their transient homes once fearless made, 
Here chased the bear and bounding deer 
And robbed these waters for their cheer; 
Here drew the tomahawk and bow 
Against each painted, murderous foe; 
And danced at midnight's blazing fire 
The dance that bloody deeds inspire. 
Here brave met brave in deadly strife 
For maiden's smile — more dear than life. 
Here smoked the magic pipe of peace 
And bade revenge and hatred cease. 
But westward still, like dawning day. 
The "Star of Empire" takes its way; 



30 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

The white man's genius here hath found 

A spot of interest profound. 

The holy priest and pioneer, 

Behold a future starting here ; 

When sire to son the names shall tell 

Of Hennepin and De La Salle. 

These waters deep and wide stretch on 

For many leagues toward setting sun ; 

And here they built the "big canoe" 

To bear them on to treasures new. 

Like phantom ship she sailed away, 

To reach no more her native bay. 

Yet millions since have treasure brought 

Along the path the Griffon sought; 

And cities grand, with wealth untold 

Adorn the way she led so bold. 

So here we place this changeless scroll 

Beside the river's ceaseless roll. 

To tell the incident sublime 

To ages down the stream of time. 

The living tide that westward flows 

O'er prairies vast, and melting snows. 

Shall echo Freedom's glad refrain 

From mountain top and spreading plain 

Where'er our starry banner waves 

O'er freemen's home or heroes' graves. 

Increasing hosts shall swell the strain 

From shore to shore and back again ; 

That man created fair and free, 

Has right to life, and liberty, 

May with the guerdon fair in view. 

His highest happiness pursue. 

That wealth and labor, side by side. 

In happy concord may abide. 

That man with fellow-man agree, 
And war and strife no more shall be. 
When Freedom's sons and Britain's pride 
May stand united side by side; 
With purpose blended grand and brave. 
To break the yoke of every slave; 
And bid mankind from sea to sea 
Each other greet as brothers free. 







HON. PETER A. PORTER 

President Niagara Frontier Historical Society, the donor of 
the La Salle Tablet 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 21 

ADDRESS 
By Hon. Herbert P. Bissell 



The Commercial Development of the West. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — It is always 
enjoyable and profitable to commemorate the virtues and 
achievements of the world's great men. The occasion which 
has brought us together today leads us to contemplate, not 
only the life-work of a brave and a great man, but also the 
significance of the memorable event of which the monument 
dedicated on this spot will ever remind us. 

The launching of the "Griffon" was the first act in the 
commercial development of the great west. 

You have listened to an interesting review of the roman- 
tic history of the stout-hearted explorer whose name is 
uppermost in our minds today. You are sufBciently familiar 
with the record of his voyages, his explorations, his tri- 
umphs, his trials, his hardihood, his disappointments, his 
greatness, his weakness, and his unhappy end. Valuable 
lessons indeed are taught us by La Salle's zeal, courage and 
persistent devotion to a determined purpose. We are filled 
with admiration for his unconquerable spirit. 

In the time that is allotted to me today, I shall endeavor 
to present only a few thoughts upon a theme that is inspir- 
ing indeed — a theme that shows us that this great hero and 
explorer builded so much "better than he knew." When 
he felled the trees of the virgin forest along this shore; 
and watched by the jealous eyes of the treacherous savages 
that surrounded him, constructed and set afloat upon the 
Niagara River the vessel whose name should be dear to 
every American heart, and should take its place in history 
with the Santa Maria, the Caravel of Columbus, little did 
he dream that he was sowing the seed of a commerce greater 
in extent and prosperity than any the world has ever seen. 



22 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

And when on the 7th of August, 1679, he finally 
embarked with his followers upon their uncertain voyage, 
chanting the Te Deum and firing their cannon; and then 
spreading their swelling canvas to a propitious breeze, 
ploughed the virgin waves of Lake Erie where sail had 
never been seen before, they led the way to a territory 
destined to become the most fertile and the richest of any 
upon God's green earth. 

La Salle was a religious man and ever ready to give 
effective aid to the Jesuit and Recollet Fathers in their self- 
sacrificing efforts to extend the Christian religion to the 
savage inhabitants of an unknown world. 

But the chief purpose of the building and launching of 
the "Griffon" was a commercial purpose. It was intended 
to secure financial benefits from the fur trade of the vast 
and unexplored west. La Salle's former explorations had 
called for so many sacrifices of property that at the time of 
the occurrence of the event which we have assembled to 
celebrate, his creditors, excited by the rumors that he was 
embarked on a hare-brained venture, from which he would 
never return, had seized on all of his property in the settled 
parts of Canada ; and the success of the first voyage of the 
"Griffon" out upon these great inland seas seemed to be 
absolutely necessary to save him from ruin and bankruptcy. 
And yet, when it became apparent that the "Griffon," con- 
structed under these remarkable circumstances and laden 
with a rich cargo of furs (whose safe delivery seemed to 
be vital to La Salle's further enterprises and his only salva- 
tion from financial ruin), had been lost somewhere on the 
return voyage, at the very time that her intrepid owner was 
preparing for his journey of exploration down the Missis- 
sippi River, the inflexible chief lost neither heart nor hope. 
Where could we find a nobler model for the manly and 
enterprising man of business? 

Instead of devoting any time to discussing the question 
of whether the Indians, the Fur Traders — a treacherous 
crew — or the storms of the Great Lakes had robbed him of 
success in his first westward venture, this stout-hearted 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 23 

hero at once set about building another vessel upon the 
banks of the Illinois, with the firm purpose of descending 
the Mississippi and sailing thence to the West Indies. And 
in order to bring to this vessel the rigging and anchors 
which she needed, he resolved to return on foot hundreds of 
miles to Fort Frontenac, along a path beset with indescrib- 
able hardships and terrors. Was ever such hardihood, such 
courage, such indomitable purpose ! 

With such an example of commercial enterprise before 
us why should the heart of the modern business man ever 
fail him? And thus, with the launching of the "Griffon" 
and her loss upon her first voyage, — taking all of her 
owner's worldly wealth with her to the bottom of the lake, 
began the commercial development of the Great West. 

I will not dwell upon the history of this rich western 
country after the time the great hero whose name we rever- 
ence had met his untimely fate at the hands of half-hearted 
and treacherous associates. The explorations, the settle- 
ments and the colonization of the French, the British, the 
Dutch and the Quakers, the wars of the French and Indians, 
and the struggle between the English and the French for 
the possession of the Western American country, form inter- 
esting pages of colonial and pioneer history. 

But the next great movement of deepest interest to us is 
"the winning of the west" by the pioneers and backwoods- 
men during and following the war of the Revolution, which 
resulted in the addition of more territory to the colonies 
which had become the first States of the American union. 
The achievements of Clark, Sevier, Robertson and Boone 
during the last quarter of the eighteenth century exercised 
a great and powerful influence upon the course of events in 
the west, a century after the death of La Salle. These four 
backwoodsmen must be regarded as national heroes — the 
best types of the individualism, the common sense, the 
Democratic instinct and the hardihood of their class. They 
were true representatives of "the strenuous life" ; and it is 
not strange to me that Theodore Roosevelt found such 
pleasure in writing their history. 



24 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

It is not necessary for me to catalogue the events which 
extended the American nation across the American con- 
tinent — the purchase of Louisiana and Florida, the acquisi- 
tion of Texas and California. But let us consider for a 
moment the present condition of the tree which has been 
growing and flourishing from the little seed planted on 
this spot by La Salle in 1679. Let us look upon the com- 
mercial splendor of the Great West of today. 

The additional territory acquired upon the American 
Continent since the organization of the thirteen colonies 
into the thirteen original States, is today divided into three 
additional territories and thirty-two additional self-govern- 
ing commonwealths. 

A few general statistics will suffice to indicate the pres- 
ent extent of our magnificent western commerce : 

Chicago sends eastward over trunk lines of railroad 150 
tons of provisions each and every hour of the calendar year; 
Minneapolis exports 4,000,000 barrels of flour per annum ; 
Duluth and Superior forward by way of the lakes 65,000,000 
bushels of grain; Duluth, West Superior and Milwaukee 
receive from the east cargoes of coal aggregating 3,000,000 
tons per annum ; Buffalo receives from the west and by the 
same great waterway 150,000,000 of bushels of grain; 
Escanaba, Duluth and Two Harbors ship 12,000,000 tons 
of iron ore, while Ashtabula, Cleveland, Conneaut and Chi- 
cago unload an equal amount from more than 7,000 vessels 
that annually enter their harbors. The Detroit River floats 
four times as much tonnage as passes through the Suez 
Canal, and once and a half times the aggregate of all ves- 
sels engaged in foreign trade that enter our ports on the 
Atlantic, the gulf and the Pacific seaboard, — an amount 
about equal the tonnage of London, Liverpool and New 
York combined. 

Do not these few statistics bear eloquent witness to the 
grandeur and unparalleled prosperity of the present com- 
merce of the Great West ! And I have told only a part of 
the story. Do not these few facts also bear witness to the 
truth of the prophecy uttered by Father Hennepin, when, as 



LANDMARKS- ASSOCIATION. 25 

La Salle's companion, he sailed through the Strait of Detroit 
upon the "Griffon" in 1679: "Those who will one day 
have the happiness to possess this fertile and pleasant strait 
will be very much obliged to those who have shown them 
the way." 

The boundless wealth and productions of Iowa, Minne- 
sota, the Dakotas and the States farther west, such as Colo- 
rado and California, need only to be mentioned to send a 
thrill of pride through every American heart. And all of 
this splendid commerce has grown up from the industry 
following an increase in the facilities of transportation, — 
the very germ and beginning of which was the launching of 
the little vessel built on this site by the adventurous Sieur 
de La Salle, two hundred and twenty-three years ago. 

And should we not as Americans be ever ready to shower 
benedictions upon the memories of the brave and self-sacri- 
ficing heroes and patriots of America's past, — the heroes and 
patriots of the period of discovery and exploration ; the 
period of colonization and settlement ; the period of revolu- 
tion and independence, which brought to us the blessings of 
our free institutions ; and finally, the period of constitutional 
government, under which we have enjoyed so much happi- 
ness and prosperity? 



Benediction by Father Grace. 

May the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, descend upon us, our families, our State, our 
nation, abiding with us, and assisting us in the discharge of 
our duties. Amen. 



A very pleasant episode of the Griffon ceremonies was 
the placing by two little grand-daughters of Mr. Jackson 
Angevine of a huge bouquet of roses upon the boulder 
immediately after its unveiling by Mrs. Horton. 



26 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

THE ST. JOHN HOUSE 

TABLET UNVEILED JULY 26, 1902 



The second tablet unveiled by the Niagara Frontier Land- 
marks Association commemorates the St. John House, a 
spectacular incident of the burning of Buffalo, December 
30, 1813, whose claim to historic perpetuation arises from 
its having been the only dwelling house spared by the Brit- 
ish and Indians at the time of the destruction of the village. 

The story was told in a well-written address by Prof. 
Horace Briggs upon the occasion of the unveiling of the 
tablet. The exercises were simple but impressive, and were 
held in the store of the H. A. Meldrum Company, No. 460 
Main Street. 

The honor of unveiling the tablet was accorded to little 
Miss Nancy Strong Gardner, a great-great-grand-daughter 
of the widow St. John, who occupied the house, December 
30, 1813, when the British and Indians swept through the 
village with torch and tomahawk, and whose marvelous 
diplomacy wrought this modern passover. 

The tablet bore the following inscription : 

The Site of the 

ST. JOHN HOUSE 

The Only Dwelling Spared by the British 

at the Burning of Bufifalo 

Dec. 30-31, 1813 



Erected by the 
NIAGARA FRONTIER LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION 

1902 




THE ST. JOHN HOUSE TABLET AND A FAMILY GROUP 



At the right is Miss Nancy Strong Gardner, who unveiled the tablet, and back of her, 

her mother and grandfather, who is a grandson of the widow St. John, 

the heroine of the episode 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 27 

ADDRESS 
By Prof. Horace Briggs 



The St. John House. 

Mr. President, Members of the Association and Citi- 
zens — This is historic ground — for that matter, all Buf- 
falo is. 

The tragedies witnessed in this new born, newly chris- 
tened town — a village baptized in blood, and swept by fire 
almost eighty-nine years ago, have become a part of our 
national story. 

The causes, remote and immediate, which led up to the 
scenes that we have met to commemorate have been so well 
portrayed by Turner, Ketchum, Barton, Hodge and Dor- 
sheimer, and more recently and quite graphically by the sec- 
retary of the Association, Mr. George D. Emerson, that 
there is little need for their rehearsal here ; however, a very 
brief resume may not be inappropriate. 

The wanton destruction of Newark, now Niagara-on- 
the-Lake, by the American General McClure, aroused deep 
indignation in the British army, and from that moment 
they sought opportunities for retaliation, and they found 
them. 

By the fall of Fort Niagara, the whole frontier was 
exposed — the day of vengeance had dawned, the hour had 
struck, fire was to be answered by fire. 

In pursuance of that purpose, the villages from Lewiston 
to Tonawanda lay smoking in their ruins. 

Then Buffalo became the objective and final point of 
attack. About one thousand British regulars and Indians, 
encamped near Fort Erie on the opposite side of the river, 
crossed and began an attack on this side, very early in the 
morning of December 30, 1813. The little town did not 
lack would-be defenders in numbers, but in war, discipline 
and experience win victories. 



28 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Of the two thousand yeoman miHtia hastily collected 
from farms in Erie, Genesee, Ontario and Chautauqua coun- 
ties, raw, undisciplined and poorly equipped, some fled at 
the first firing — some did not wait even for a sight of the 
enemy. They forgot their boasted patriotism and obeyed 
the first law of nature — in plainer language, they "took to 
the woods." 

But with their lack of experience and equipment, would 
you and I have done better? 

Let us turn the shield — the observe shows brighter pic- 
tures ; and conspicuous among these is Colonel Blakeslee 
and his Ontario volunteers. 

At the Sailor's Battery, near the mouth of the Scajaquada 
Creek, they stood their ground until they were out-flanked 
by the enemy. 

Picture No. 2, shows Lieutenant-Colonel Seeley and his 
band of twenty-five Buffaloes working their gun under such 
exposure that in an hour only seven men were left and one 
horse. 

Mounting that horse hitched to the little field-piece, he 
and his Spartan band fought every inch of their retreat 
toward the village. 

Once the gun was dismounted, but it was quickly replaced 
and did service so long as resistance gave hope. 

Another picture reveals Colonel Chapin with his citizen 
troops contesting in their retreat along Niagara Street and 
making a determined stand near Colonel Seeley on Main 
Street. 

Moving the angle of vision a trifle, we, face another ani- 
mated picture. 

In it we behold citizens E. D. Efner, Seth Grosvenor, 
James Sweeney, Robert Kane, Elisha Foster, Captain Hull 
and his brother Absalom, and a sailor known as Johnson, 
famihar names these to some of you, — seizing a naval gun 
from a vessel of Perry's fleet then lying in the creek, drag- 
ging it to the front and serving it gallantly, sending a nine- 
pound ball wherever a red coat appeared. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 29 

One more scene — the on-sweeping of the British regulars 
crushed all hope ; bravery resulted in a fool-hardy waste of 
life. Colonel Chapin, convinced of this, went forward ni 
angry humiliation with a flag of trace. If tradition is to be 
trusted, that flag was unique — in emergency, a piece of his 
own linen tied to his sword. Meanwhile the torch had been 
applied to dwellings up Main Street and murder kept pace 
with the torch. 

Alas ! that we must again read the reverse of our shield. 

But a brief episode intervenes. Some forty convalescent 
American soldiers had heard from a hospital at Williams- 
ville, the cannonading and came rushing to the rescue. A 
messenger was sent ordering them to cease firing the gun 
they had brought with them since a truce had been declared. 

No marvel that then "our army swore terribly in Flan- 
ders," for, in violation of the terms of the truce, nearly every 
building from Tupper Street to Exchange was wrapped in 
flames. Newark was avenged. Mrs. Love joy, living nearly 
opposite the place in which we are assembled, was toma- 
hawked, and two days afterward her remains were cremated 
in her own house. 

When she saw the Indians approaching, she bade her 
boy Henry, then twelve years of age, to hide ; for a few 
hours before he had carried a musket in the fight at Fort 
Tompkins. Many of you knew him afterward as a surveyor. 

By what arguments Mrs. St. John persuaded the British 
commander to spare her house, we may never know. 

She was a widow with several children, some of whose 
descendants live in Buffalo today. 

She was endowed with marked personality, was robust, 
fairly good looking and tradition further says, she was inter- 
esting in conversation. 

Without doubt she brought into action all the forceful 
qualities of her nature. In such a crisis how eloquently 
could a mother plead. 

That her house stood on this site, we have strong cir- 
cumstantial evidence. 



30 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

The records in the county clerk's office show that in 1810 
Gamahel St. John bought lot No. 53 in the village. 

In 1861, Philip Becker purchased lot No. 53 and some 
years later, cleared the site for this present structure. 

In 1863, or thereabout, during the process of the demoli- 
tion of an old house near this spot and nearly opposite the 
well-known Phcenix Hotel, your speaker was attracted from 
the street by the sight of strangely wrought timbers of the 
building. There was not a sawed stick in the whole frame- 
work; studding, joists and rafters were hewed from round 
logs or poles, and fastened with wooden pins, the few nails 
used were hand forged. It was evidently the work of a 
past age. Tradition declared that it was the St. John house. 
A small structure in front, I think of brick of a later date, 
built flush with the street buildings, appeared to have been 
used as a store. This also was partially dismantled. 

The fact that the first named structure was very old, 
proved by its construction that it stood near this spot, if 
not upon it ; that these buildings were demolished in the 
sixties ; that lot No. 53 was deeded to St. John in 1810; that 
he would, presumably, build upon his own lot; that in less 
than three years thereafter his house was the only dwelling 
saved from the conflagration ; that, in the sixties, Philip 
Becker bought lot No. 53, and subsequently a part of lot 
No. 54, both of which plots are now covered by these build- 
ings ; that in the memory of men now living, the supposed 
St. John house stood very near or upon this site — these con- 
siderations are strong presumptive evidence that it stood 
here and that the committee are justified in placing the tab- 
let recording their belief upon these buildings. But why 
set up tablets anywhere? 

The desire to perpetuate the memory of notable events 
is instinct in our race. 

The warrior priest, Joshua, bade the leaders of Israel 
each to take a stone from the bed of Jordan, and with them 
to rear a monument commemorative of a crisis in their 
history. 



LANDMARKS- ASSOCIATION. 31 

"When your children shall ask, what mean ye by these 
stones, ye shall tell them of the marvelous parting of the 
waters of the river that your fathers might pass through on 
dry land." 

But why place a memorial here? The St. John house 
was only an incident. True, but that incident was pregnant 
with meaning to us, and will continue to be to all the com- 
ing generations that shall people this fair city of ours. 

Its simple inscription will point to that fateful winter 
day, that Dies Irs, when frightened mothers and children 
separated from fathers and brothers, their natural defend- 
ers, sore pinched with cold and hunger, caring for the sick 
borne on carts and sleds, fleeing from the tomahawk and a 
more deplorable fate, leaving blazing homes for dubious 
protection in an inhospitable forest, some never to return, 
others to fight the battle anew for a fireside and win again 
a vanished fortune. 

Compatriots, members of kindred associations and 
citizens. 

Buffalo has a past and it is meet in us to erect monu- 
ments and emblazon walls of buildings covering historic 
sites with inscriptions recounting the achievements of our 
fathers and the heroic endurance of our mothers ; — that 
when our children may ask, what mean ye by these sym- 
bols? we can proudly recite the story of the brave deeds 
done and the hallowed sacrifices made by the early settlers 
of the little hamlet, that they might lay broad and deep and 
sure, the foundations of this beautiful city which is, and of 
the greater one to be; — that from the noble examples of 
the past illustrated by the lessons these tablets may teach, 
inspiration may be drawn by us and by all who may come 
after us for higher attainments in patriotism and in civic 
purity and honor. 



33 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

THE BATTLE OF BLACK ROCK 

TABLET UNVEILED AUGUST 2, 1902. 



The third tablet unveiled under the auspices of the Niag- 
ara Frontier Landmarks Association was placed upon the 
Niagara Street bridge, spanning Scajaquada Creek, and was 
unveiled Saturday, August 2, 1902, the following day ( Sun- 
day, August 3d,) being the eighty-eighth anniversary of the 
fight which took place at that spot between American and 
British troops August 3, 1814. 

The day was warm, but pleasant, and a large company 
assembled to witness the exercises. 

The tablet bore the following inscription : 

Near and Around This Spot Was Fought the 

BATTLE OF BLACK ROCK 

August 3, 1814 

Between American and British Troops, in Which 

the Former Were Successful. 

Erected by the 
NIAGARA FRONTIER LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION 

1902 

The following programme was carried out : 

Introduction Trueman G. Avery, Chairman 

Niagara Frontier Landmarks' Association 

UnveiHng of Tablet Miss Grace E. Bird 

Decoration of Tablet 

Master Wm. A. Bird, Jr., Master Cyrus Remington Bird 

Historical Address George D. Emerson 

Address, "The Militia of Western New York in the War of 

1812" Hon. Peter A. Porter 

Music, "America" Frederick Howard, Esq., Leader 



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LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 33 

After the exercises, members of the Society of the War 
of 1812 visited Forest Lawn Cemetery, where they placed 
upon the public monument a wreath with the following in- 
scription : 

"In memory of Major Lodowick Morgan, First Regi- 
ment, U. S. A., wko so successfully defended the bridge 
over Scajaquada Creek, August 3, 1814, against the superior 
numbers of the British, this Municipal War monument is 
decorated by members of the Society of the War of 1812. 

"May his example lead us to patriotic deeds in times of 
peace as well as in times of war." 

Sheldon Thompson Viele, 
Alexander William Hoffman, 
Joseph Tottenham Cook. 



ADDRESS 



By George D. Emerson 
Secretary of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 



The Battle of Black Rock. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — We, who are 
Buffalonians, either by birth or adoption, are proud of our 
beautiful city. Furthermore, we feel that we are justified 
in cherishing such feelings. Beautiful for situation, at the 
foot of the greatest chain of lakes in the world — just where 
the setting sun throws its last good-night kisses to the 
Empire State — with long, broad avenues, miles of shade 
trees, attractive and pleasant homes, substantial business 
blocks, a phenomenally low death-rate, interesting suburbs 
developing into enterprising communities, large and ever- 
increasing industrial and commercial interests, it seems to 
me that we can challenge even that boast which in olden 
time bade defiance to the whole world, when one could 
proudly exclaim, "I am a citizen of Rome." 



34 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

But, as we do today, turn back the pages of history 
eighty-eight years and the most vivid imagination can 
scarcely conceive the picture which, if reproduced with all 
its then crude surroundings, would be presented to view. 
Such a picture would show us Main Street, a muddy, coun- 
try road, on a ridge far above its present elevation ; Niagara 
Street, another country road from Main Street to about 
where yonder street railway buildings are located ; North 
and Ferry streets, routes through the woods to the Black 
Rock road, which, continuing Niagara Street, led down 
across the creek on whose banks we are gathered, thence to 
Niagara Falls, Lewiston and Fort Niagara. Instead of a 
large and flourishing city we would behold only a village, 
at the time of its destruction on December 30, 1813, of 
about one hundred houses and perhaps six hundred people, 
scattered principally along Main and Pearl streets, to whom 
mail was brought from the east in an open wagon once a 
week. 

Its nearest neighbor and most formidable competitor at 
that time was Black Rock, a thriving settlement, lying some- 
what to the south of this locality, possessing the only har- 
bor available for shipping purposes and whose future then 
seemed far more promising than that of Buffalo. Some two 
miles of woods lay between the two communities. 

Upon these defenseless frontier outposts the storm of 
war, with its attendant horrors, burst in June, 1812. The 
Niagara Frontier became at once one of the principal thea- 
ters of conflict. For one and one-half years the war fol- 
lowed at a number of points with varying results — a suc- 
cession of brilliant achievements on the water, including 
Commodore Perry's great victory on Lake Erie, September 
10, 1813, and a series of misfortunes on the land, some of 
them almost disgraceful to the American arms. The much- 
heralded conquest of Upper Canada culminated in the 
retreat of the American army under General McClure, the 
surrender of Fort Niagara and the devastation of our Niag- 
ara Frontier, during which Buffalo and Black Rock were 
destroyed by the enemy. 



LANDMARKS- ASSOCIATION. 35 

In the spring and early summer of 1814 a determined 
effort was made by both State and national authorities to 
retrieve the somewhat shadowed honor of the United States 
force militant and a fresh army was gathered around Buf- 
falo and Black Rock, under command of Maj.-Gen. Jacob 
Brown, with generals Winfield Scott, Peter B. Porter and 
E. W. Ripley as brigade commanders. Arms, ammunition 
and supplies were accumulated at both of these points. On 
July 3, 1814, the main body of these troops, commanded 
by General Brown, crossed to^ the Canadian shore and initi- 
ated the new conquest of Canada. Our now venerable 
friend across the bay. Fort Erie, speedily fell into his 
hands. Following this in the same month came the bloody 
battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, in both of which 
were exhibited American valor and courage unsurpassed. 
Lundy's Lane was succeeded by the retrograde movement 
and August 2, 18 14, found our gallant little army back in 
Fort Erie, followed by the British troops under General 
Drummond, who proceeded immediately to the investment 
and siege of that stronghold. 

For the protection of the munitions of war stored at Buf- 
falo and Black Rock, the first battalion of the First United 
States Rifles, commanded by Major Lodowick Morgan, 
with some volunteers and militia numbering about three 
hundred and fifty all told, were stationed at Black Rock and 
to this gallant officer belongs the honor of winning the sharp 
and decisive contest we today commemorate. 

During the evening of August 2d, Major Morgan noticed 
a movement by the British army across the river, fronting 
Fort Erie, and at 2 o'clock in the morning the landing of 
several boat-loads of the enemy at the foot of Squaw Island 
was reported to him. With commendable promptness he 
immediately moved his men to Scajaquada Creek, tore up 
the planking covering the south half of the bridge, then 
spanning the stream about two rods west of this present 
structure, a sort of jack-knife construction, two halves, rais- 
ing in the centre, constructed a breastwork of logs and 



36 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

behind this and along the south bank of the creek awaited 
the attack. 

The British troops engaged in this expedition consisted 
of detachments of the Forty-first, Eighty-ninth, One Hun- 
dredth and One Hundred and Fourth regiments of infantry 
and a small force of artillerymen, all tmder command of 
Lieut. -Col. John G. P. Tucker, a prominent and generally 
accredited efficient officer. 

At 4 o'clock in the morning of August 3, 1814, the fight 
was opened. The British troops came through the woods 
between the creek and their landing place on Squaw Islan«! 
and planned to cross the bridge and attack the American 
forces in their entrenchments. Major Morgan prudently 
held his fire until the enemy was within close range. Rapid 
and brisk firing ensued. Frustrated in their attempt to 
cross by the removal of the planking, the British troops 
with true Anglo-Saxon pluck and persistence endeavored 
to restore the bridge, but in vain — the American sharp- 
shooting was too effective. The British commander then 
made an attempt to flank the force at the bridge by detach- 
ing a part of his troops to cross the stream farther up, but 
was frustrated by Major Morgan, who detached a force 
under lieutenants Ryan, Smith and Armstrong to meet this 
attack, and again the enemy was repulsed. At length, after 
two and one-half hours' fighting, being unable to restore 
the bridge or ford the stream at any point, the British com- 
mander retired to his boats, thence back across the river. 
This was the last hostile movement of an enemy and from 
that hour to this the stars and stripes have waved in tri- 
umph over Buffalo and Black Rock, now one municipality. 

Colonel Tucker, the British commander, reported a loss 
of twelve killed, seventeen wounded and five missing. Of 
the American forces two were killed and eight wounded. 
This small loss is accounted for by the fact that the British 
troops shot too high and many of their bullets went into the 
branches of the trees, causing the leaves to fall like rain. 

It is always interesting to know something of the hero 
of anv occasion, and a few words concerning the American 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 37 

commander, Major Lodowick Morgan, may not be amiss. 
He was a native of Maryland and was appointed a second 
lieutenant in the regular army on May 3, 1808; he was pro- 
moted to be first lieutenant on May 21, 1809, to be captain 
on July I, 181 1, and to be major on January 24, 1813. He 
served with his regiment from June, 1808, to November, 
1810, and for several months after that he was on recruit- 
ing service in Maryland. In November, 181 2, he was sta- 
tioned with his company at Fort Nelson, near Norfolk, Va., 
and in February, 181 3, was ordered north. He left Nor- 
folk on May 8, 181 3, passed through Richmond, May 12th, 
Washington, May i8th. and arrived at Albany, June 6th, 
leaving there on June 7th to join General Dearborn's com- 
mand. In July, 1813, he was on duty at Oswego and 
Sacket's Harbor. In July, 18 14, Major Morgan was sta- 
tioned at Plattsburg, coming from there to Buffalo or Black 
Rock, reaching here just in time to participate in the Black 
Rock fight. It is exceedingly lamentable to add that his 
brilliant career was cut short almost immediately. He was 
ordered to Fort Erie with his battalion, and on August 12th, 
only nine days after the contest at Scajaquada Bridge, was 
killed in a skirmish before the walls of Fort Erie. That he 
was an officer of unusual merit and prominence is evidenced 
from the fact that his death was made the subject of a spe- 
cial dispatch to the Secretary of War from the American 
commanding general. 

The results of the battle of Black Rock were far-reaching, 
although it may seem in and of itself a trivial affair com- 
pared with the stupendous transactions of these later years. 
The purpose of the British commander in ordering this ser- 
vice was to destroy the arms and other supplies at Buffalo 
and Black Rock, burn buildings if necessary, and disperse 
the forces concentrated there, thus preventing any succor to 
our beleaguered army in Fort Erie. By the utter failure to 
accomplish these purposes, Buffalo and Black Rock, then 
rising from the ashes of December, 1813, were spared a 
second visitation from the enemy, a change was necessitated 
in the plans of the British general and I do not think it 



38 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

extravagant to claim that the final outcome of the long and 
bloody contest around the walls, which are so familiar to 
many of us, was largely due to the success of the American 
troops at Scajaquada Bridge. 

It is meet, right and altogether fitting that we should 
pause in our daily avocations to erect an enduring memorial 
commemorating the stirring events herein briefly depicted. 
This may not be holy ground upon which we stand, but it 
certainly is historic. 

Each foot has its story of that trying period. Near here, 
on this same shore, was the famous shipyard in which some 
of the vessels of Commodore Perry's Lake Erie fleet were 
fitted out and where in later years many vessels and canal 
boats were built. To the west, at the south angle where 
the creek flows into Niagara River, was the Sailors' Bat- 
tery, with its contribution to the war history of 1812. To the 
south, where are now the well-known street railway build- 
ings, stood Fort Tompkins, the largest and most important 
fortification on the American shore around Black Rock and 
Buffalo. We meet on a battle-field of that war itself where 
brother met brother in the cruel arbitrament of arms. 

I apprehend that not one of all the hundreds who par- 
ticipated in that conflict is living. 

" They have fought their last battle— they 
sleep their last sleep- 
No sound shall awake them to glory again." 

Commander and subaltern, officer, rank and file, assailed 
and assailant, victor and vanquished, the blue, the red, the 
gray are alike forever released from earthly cares and 
animosities. 

So with an equal splendor 

The morning sun rays fall, 
With a touch impartially tender 
On the blossoms blooming for all. 

These eighty-eight years have not been exempt from war, 
but, happily, we can come together today in an era of pro- 
found peace, never so great or so deep-seated in the heart 




GEORGE DOUGLAS EMERSON 

Secretary Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 39 

as between the two peoples whose armies once met in deadly 
strife on the banks of this peaceful stream. We do well in 
perpetuating the memory of such an event and can without 
prejudice pay tribute to English pluck and Yankee courage. 
God grant that in all the years to come, throughout all gen- 
erations, these two great nations may ever be found arm in 
arm leading the world's advancement in civilization and 
progress. 



ADDRESS 
By Hon. Peter A. Porter. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — The militia 
of Western New York in the War of 1812, the men who 
from Lake Erie to the Genesee River and from Lake 
Ontario to the Pennsylvania line, left their homes, when 
the call for help came and gathered at various points along, 
and for the defense of this frontier, is a subject that can be 
referred to, but what the nation and what this section then 
owed to them, cannot be told in the few moments to which 
I must limit my remarks. 

In 181 2 our country was illy prepared for another war, 
and it was for that reason, that Britain, through previous 
insolence, both in diplomacy and on the high seas, wanted 
to drive us into one. She still had a lingering hope that 
she would be able to reconquer her former American colo- 
nies by force of arms. 

The recommendation for the declaration of that war was 
reported to congress by the chairman of its committee on 
foreign relations, who then represented Niagara County, 
which included all of Erie County, and who was a resident 
of the village of Black Rock. 

That was the first war which the United States had 
to face, after they had taken their place among the nations 
of the earth. There were doubts on the part of Great 
Britain, whether the "Spirit of 'y6'' which had beaten her 



40 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

in the Revolution, had survived sufficiently to again success- 
fully resist her power. The War of 1812 removed those 
doubts forever. When that war broke out, of a standing 
army, we had practically none. Her militia was the nation's 
reliance. Yet of the younger generation who had served in 
the Revolution, there were many survivors. And congress 
rightly beheved that those men would promptly give their 
services, either as regulars or as militia, and so they did. 

Hence our Western New York militia of that day con- 
tained a small percentage of men, who, as youths had seen 
service, and service that had won an imperishable victory. 
They were the leaven that leavened the whole lump ; all 
the rest of the militia was at first an inexperienced, but 
plastic, brave and patriotic body of recruits. 

They came in haste, without uniforms ; they were poorly 
armed, poorly fed, poorly commanded, without military 
training, but ready to do and die. And when, at the last, 
they were given leaders in whose courage and ability they 
had confidence, they fought and marched to victory. 

At the early stages of the war, some of them showed 
examples of cowardice as at Queenston Heights, where 
many refused to cross the river, when they saw the battle 
was going against their comrades. When an officer was 
trying to induce them to go, some replied, "No, we should 
all be killed" ; and the officer waving his sword, shouted, 
"Come on, cuss you; do you want to live forever?" And 
again, in a smaller way at Buffalo, when a few declared 
that being militia, they could not be ordered out of the 
country into Canada. But to the great bulk of them at the 
first and to all of them at the last, cowardice was unknown. 

There was no cowardice among the militia at the battles 
of Chippewa, nor of Lundy's Lane, nor of Black Rock ; 
there was none at the British attack on Fort Erie; there 
was none in the famous and successful American Sortie 
from that fort. 

There was no treason among our troops, either regulars 
or militia, in the war of 181 2. Humanity always remembers 
bravery and it rewards it; it also never forgets treason, but 
it abhors it. 



LANDMARKS- ASSOCIATION. 41 

Do you recall that story of Benedict Arnold, who, at first 
fought so bravely for the American cause, and who rose 
to be a brigadier general under Washington ? Later he sold 
himself to the enemy and turned his talents and his knowl- 
edge against his countrymen. After the Revolution was 
over and he was living in London, rich by reason of his 
treason, but despised by all, he met a Quaker friend from 
Philadelphia. And, in spite of his treason, that love of his 
former country was still strong in Arnold's heart and he 
yearned to come back. The first question he asked was, 
''If I were to return to America, how would the people 
treat me?" And his truthful Quaker friend answered him, 
"Benedict, if thee was to return to America, the people 
there would take that leg of thine that was wounded while 
thee was bravely leading the colonial troops at the battle 
of Saratoga, and they would bury it with military honors ; 
and then they would take the rest of thy damned old car- 
cass and they would hang it up on a gallows higher than 
that of Haman." 

The treason of Arnold was fresh in the minds of the 
people in 1812. There was no incentive, there was no wish 
for any one to follow him. 

In recalling the services of our militia in that war, let us 
not forget the efficient aid that was rendered us by our 
Indian allies, who acted with that militia, especially by the 
Senecas who dwelt in the vicinity of BuiTalo. 

In planning the attack that resulted in the battle of Black 
Rock, General Drummond had in mind more than the mere 
winning of a victory, more than only a second destruction 
of the villages of Buffalo and Black Rock, more than merely 
the capture of our base of operations and supplies. He 
wanted to impress upon his troops the idea that all the 
available American forces, who possessed courage, had been 
at Chippewa and at Lundy's Lane and were then in Fort 
Erie ; that on our side of the river there were only the home 
guards, the militia whom he affected to despise. The result 
of that expedition proved that he still underestimated Ameri- 
can valor. It showed him that that expedition in the words 
of Mirabeau, "was worse than a crime, it was a blunder." 



42 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

.What Chippewa and Lundy's Lane and Black Rock and 
Fort Erie taught us, above everything else, was that our 
troops, regulars and militia combined, were able to meet 
and to best the trained soldiery of Britain, even the veterans 
who had fought under Wellington in the Spanish Penin- 
sula, and the lessons which those victories taught us and 
which those defeats taught them, have never been forgotten. 

The United States and Great Britain are friends now, 
may they ever remain so ; but the lessons of the past must 
not, on that account, be left unnoticed. 

The spirit of patriotism among the militia of 1812, which 
inspired them to rush to the defense of this frontier, against 
a foreign foe, when our country was thinly populated and 
weak, was but an inheritance of the spirit of our forefathers 
in 'y6, and it was but the forerunner of the spirit of '61, 
which, when our country was thickly populated and strong, 
manifested itself so determinedly in defense of the proposi- 
tion that our nation should not be split in twain. 

Surely, we owe much to the militia of 1812. Hereabouts, 
numerically, they were the major portion of our defenders. 
They bore their parts well, bravely, loyally, sustaining the 
troops of the regular army, and equally with them doing 
their share of the fighting. 

They did their full duty in the battle which this tablet 
commemorates, and they constituted about one third of the 
entire American forces engaged therein. 

It is, indeed, a noble heritage, it is an high honor for 
any one to be able to say, "My ancestor was one of those 
who fought in the militia of Western New York, in the 
War of 1812." 




GEORGE ALFRED STRINGER 



President Buffalo Association Society of Colonial Wars, and Chairman 
Finance Committee Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. \ 43 

\ 
\ 

\ 

THE DEVIL'S HOLE MASSACRE 

TABLET UNVEILED SEPTEMBER 13, 1902 



On September 14, 1763, occurred the ever-memorable 
massacre at the Devil's Hole, in the Niagara Gorge, a short 
distance below the Falls. In commemoration of this event, 
and in memory of the British soldiers and civilians who were 
slain at that time, a tablet was unveiled at the foot of the 
cliff on Saturday, September 13, 1902. The tablet was a 
gift from the Niagara Gorge Railroad Company and bore 
the following inscription : 

At the Top of the CHfif, Above This Spot 

September 14, 1763, Occurred 

"THE DEVIL'S HOLE MASSACRE" 

Where 500 Seneca Indians Ambushed a 

British Supply Train, Massacred Its Escort 

And Hurled Bodies and Wagons Into the Chasm 

Below; Only Three, John Steadman, William Matthews, 

And One Other Escaping. 

Erected by Niagara Gorge Railroad Co. 

And Presented to 

Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 

1902. 

The exercises were held on a platform at the foot of the 
cliff, and the programme was made up as follows, George 
A'. Stringer, Esq., President of the Buffalo Society of Colo- 
nial Wars, presiding: 

Invocation Rev. John C. Ward 

Introductory Remarks George A. Stringer, Chairman 

Presentation of Tablet Hon. Herbert P. Bissell 

On Behalf of Niagara Gorge Railroad Co. 

Unveiling of Tablet Mrs. John Miller Horton 

Society of Colonial Dames 



44 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Acceptance of Tablet George D. Emerson, Secretary 

Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 

Address Prof. Arthur Detmers 

Buffalo West Side High School 

Remarks Albert E. Jones, Ex-President 

Victoria Club 

Song, "America" Frederick Howard, Leader 

Benediction Rev. John C. Ward 



ADDRESS 
By George A. Stringer, Esq. 

It is a pleasure to record that since this Assoctanon 
began its work, only a few short months ago, there has been 
a greatly awakened interest manifested in the public mind, 
not only regarding the several places already marked, but 
those which have been indicated for the future. This has 
led already to investigation and reading on the part of many 
who desire to know more concerning the past history of 
this region. Let but a few more gifted writers arise as the 
author of the 'Trails on the Niagara Frontier,' and we shall 
soon have a more intelligent and widespread interest around 
which will redound to the honor of this part of the State. 

Owing to the generosity and courtesy of the Niagara 
Gorge Railway Company, through its Vice-President, Mr. 
Herbert P. Bissell, one of our valued associates and co- 
workers, this Association has been enabled to have this 
spot appropriately marked, a fitting memorial not only to 
the British soldiers who fell on that ill-fated day of Septem- 
ber, 1763, but a slight tribute, also, to that great nation 
across the sea, with whom in the early dawn of this twen- 
tieth century we are marching shoulder to shoulder for all 
that makes for a higher civilization and for the betterment 
of mankind, unto the desired end when wars shall cease and 
arbitration shall take the place of the sword in disputes 
which may arise among the nations of the earth. So may 
it be. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 45 

ADDRESS 

By Herbert P. Bissell, Esq., 

Presenting, on Behalf of the Niagara Gorge Railroad 

Company, the Tablet Unveiled at 

THE Devil's Hole. 

The Niagara Frontier is famous not only for the pos- 
session of Nature's most wonderful and stupendous scenery, 
but also for the many historical events that have transpired 
along this border both before and after the creation of the 
American Republic. 

The wise and thoughtful plan of the Niagara Frontier 
Landmarks Association to mark by suitable monuments the 
sites of these historical events is meeting with gratifying 
success, and the Niagara Gorge Railroad Company is glad 
to assist this plan by erecting on this spot a tablet to com- 
memorate the Devil's Hole massacre, which occurred Sep- 
tember 14, 1763, at the time when the stout-hearted English 
colonists were struggling for the extension of European 
civilization and European supremacy over a vast western 
wilderness. 

This simple memorial will serve for many generations 
yet to come and a reminder of the bravery and heroism dis- 
played, and the struggles and hardships endured by our fore- 
fathers during the period of discovery and first development 
of the magnificent continent, which has been to us such a 
rich heritage of liberty, prosperity and happiness. 

It is now my pleasure and privilege, on behalf of the 
Niagara Gorge Railroad Company, to formally present this 
tablet to the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association. 



46 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

ADDRESS 
By George D. Emerson, Secretary, 

Accepting the Devil's Hole Tablet on Behalf of the 
Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association. 

It has been my pleasure to have been connected with 
the work of the Landmarks Association from its organiza- 
tion. While to all of us it has been a labor of love, pursued 
with intelligence and unanimity, I think we can congratulate 
ourselves upon one feature, or, rather, one result, which has 
unquestionably come from the efforts of this organization, 
and that is the manifest awakened interest in the early his- 
tory of the Niagara Frontier. 

We have at least demonstrated that this border line 
possesses a thrilling, romantic past, interspersed at times 
with tragedy and full of important historic events. Many 
whose attention may not have been especially directed to 
that thought now realize that this rocky gorge witnessed the 
contest for the supremacy of the Western Continent and 
that all about here were enacted scenes that had a powerful 
influence in shaping the destinies of the world. Is this an 
extravagant claim? Think for a moment. 

The victory which came to the English arms over the 
French, developed the American colonies — the American 
colonies gave rise to the War for Independence — out of the 
successful issue of the War for Independence grew the great 
Republic of the West, with all its mighty and far-reaching 
influence in uplifting mankind and shaping the destinies of 
the peoples of the world. 

It is scarcely possible for the imagination to conceive 
what would have been the subsequent record of this con- 
tinent had the French maintained their supremacy, and the 
Niagara Frontier stands out in bold relief, a most prominent 
center of action in the tremendous struggle wherein history 
was molded and fashioned. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 47 

We today commemorate one of the most tragic events 
in all that early period. As the Niagara Frontier Land- 
marks Association, however, we meet to receive from the 
hands of another organization a tablet which shall tell all 
future visitors to this spot, as far as it may, the story of 
the bloody and ruthless scene enacted here one hundred and 
thirty-nine years ago. 

Gentlemen of the Niagara Gorge Railroad Company, 
your gift seems to me to tell not only of your own generos- 
ity, but is a splendid tribute' to the work which this associa- 
tion has undertaken. It is your voluntary contribution to 
the task of preserving for all generations the records of a 
strenuous epoch in America's formative period and is cred- 
itable alike to both impulse and execution. 

In the name of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Asso- 
ciation I accept it and return to you our most sincere grati- 
tude. Here, surrounded by as bold and rugged handiwork 
of nature as scarcely any part of the world parallels, facing 
yonder rushing stream, whose early history is so remote 
that the most ancient of man's records are as of today com- 
pared with its countless ages, we will leave this memorial, 
trusting, as we do, that in the good order of Providence 
never again in any generation will there be a necessity to 
perpetuate by bronze or stone the record of a similar 
tragedy. 

ADDRESS 
By Prof. Arthur Detmers. 



The Devil's Hole Massacre. 

The massacre at Devil's Hole, though it has little his- 
toric significance, is nevertheless related to large events. It 
was the year 1763. The Peace of Paris, signed in Febru- 
ary, had terminated the French and Indian war, and left 
England nominal master of North America. But, though 
the French were out of the combat, the Red Men were still 



48 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

to be reckoned with. Scarcely had peace been made when 
Pontiac sprung his deadly trap, spreading havoc among the 
conquerors. With that famous conspiracy, the deed which 
this tablet commemorates is connected, for it was the work 
of Pontiac's only Iroquois allies, the fierce, stubborn Senecas. 

About a century before, the Senecas had destroyed the 
Neutrals, the tribe that had long occupied this frontier. 
From their chief seats in the valley of the Genesee, they 
ranged the forest wilderness that covered all this region. 
They were the tribe with which de Denonville clashed. It 
was they from whom Joncaire got permission to erect his 
"trading post" at the foot of Lewiston Mountain, and from 
a few years later consent was gained to build a storehouse 
at the mouth of the river — the beginning of the present 
famous fort. As we well know, however, French suprem- 
acy was brief. The fall of Quebec in 1759 was France's 
coup de grace. Niagara capitulated and received its Eng- 
lish master. Sir William Johnson. 

The post at the mouth of the river was a most important 
one. It was a doorway to the West — the land of furs. Not 
the only one, to be sure. Up and down the long reaches of 
the Ottawa moved the canoes of traders ; and, to the south. 
Fort Pitt opened another gate into the interior of the coun- 
try. Still, for many years Niagara River held the suprem- 
acy. Traffic moved up Lake Ontario and the Niagara River 
to the head of navigation ; at that place the portage began. 
A zig-zag path led up to the side of Lewiston Mountain, 
and thence, after skirting the river to a point near Suspen- 
sion Bridge, the road turned off, reaching the river again 
at Fort Schlosser. Over this narrow seven-mile track, for 
many years went the bulk of western traffic. As many as 
two hundred Senecas were employed during French times 
in transporting the goods. 

The Enghsh, however, had "progressive ideas." A con- 
tract was made with John Steadman to widen the portage 
and render it fit for wagons. In two years the work was 
finished, and the poor Indian, who had borne the heat and 
burden of the day, found his occupation gone. His soul 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 49 

was already bitter within him. The exhortations of Pon- 
tiac and the instigations of the French had prepared the 
way for wrath. And now the Enghshman's cool dismissal 
of iiim from the carrying business was the occasion and the 
opportunity of revenge. The massacre at Devil's Hole was 
the result. 

Let me tell the story briefly. On the 14th of September, 
1763, a party of carriers— the second that had gone over the 
new portage — was slowly moving down the road from Fort 
Schlosser. Around the creaking, jolting wagons drawn by 
horses and oxen was a guard of twenty-five men. John 
Steadman, master of the portage, accompanied them on 
horseback. The day must have been as peaceful as a day 
can be that is unvexed by sounds of human activity. On 
the right was the primeval forest, on the left the tumultuous 
river. The little party was approaching the spot where the 
river runs close to the precipice, and across which a tiny 
stream then poured its waters into the abyss. It was an 
ill-omened place of black repute among the Indians. Evil 
awaited him who ventured into that haunt of the Evil One. 
The intrepid La Salle had clambered down the sides of the 
chasm and peered into the gloomy cavern. He paid the 
penalty in the tragic death that afterward overtook him. 
The party was just passing this uncanny place when from 
the woods on the right came a rattle and crash of musketry, 
followed by a furious rush of savages. A plying of bloody 
tomahawks, shrieks, groans, howls of triumph, a crashing 
of bodies among the trees on the side of the precipice — and 
the bloody work was done. No ambuscade ever was exe- 
cuted more cunningly, swiftly, unerringly. Only three 
escaped. A drummer boy leaped into the chasm and was 
caught in the branches of a tree. A driver who was 
wounded crawled into the woods and remained there unno- 
ticed until the savages were gone. Steadman managed to 
sever the bridle, as his horse was being led away by one of 
the Indians, and putting spurs to the animal he dashed ud 
the road amid whizzing bullets, and reached Fort Schlosser 
in safety. 



50 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Meantime the sounds of firing had startled the small gar- 
rison that was posted at the Lewiston end of the portage. 
The soldiers hurried up the mountain side and along the 
road in the direction from which the sounds had come. 
They were not far from the scene of the massacre, when, 
with a crash and a leap, the savages were upon them, too. 
The bloody work was done in a few minutes ; and three 
score scalpless, mangled bodies cluttered the road and the 
bordering woods. Eight escaped. 

Eleven days later. Sir William was writing from John- 
son Hall, in what is now Fulton County, to the Lords of 
Trade, in England. He was trying to impress on those 
worthy gentlemen the necessity of cultivating the friendship 
and the afifection of the Indians. "Unless we keep them in 
the best of temper," he was writing, "they will easily be 
persuaded to commit depredations against the traders." The 
letter was hardly finished when news of the massacre 
reached him ; and the letter contained this postscript : "This 
moment I have received an express informing me that an 
officer and twenty-four men, who were escorting several 
wagons and ox-teams over the carrying place at Niagara 
had been attacked and entirely defeated, together with two 
companies of Col. Willmot's regiment, who marched to sus- 
tain them. Our loss consists of five officers and sixty pri- 
vates killed, with about eight or nine wounded ; the enemy, 
who are supposed to be Senecas, scalped all the dead, took 
all the clothes, arms, ammunition, and threw several of the 
bodies down the precipice." Four years later, he says, 
"They destroyed . . . about one hundred men, but two 
escaping." 

Such was the bloody baptism of the new portage. With 
eighty scalps dangling at, his side, the noble Red Man went 
back to tamer sports on the Genesee, and grimly awaited 
the day of reckoning. 

The prudent old chiefs, however, hurriedly sent a large 
deputation to Sir William Johnson to disclaim responsi- 
bility ; they laid the blame on the younger warriors ; and 
entreated forgiveness. Sir William was a sagacious man. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 51 

He proposed to make substantial gain out of the Indians' 
bloody folly. He was willing to forgive — for a considera- 
tion. For those hundred lives, the Senecas must cede a 
strip of land fourteen miles in breath, lying along and on 
both sides of the river from Lake Ontario to a point above 
the Falls. The repentant Red Men agreed, and promised 
to complete the transaction the following spring. 

Next June, Johnson gathered a great council of Indians 
at Fort Niagara. They came from the North and the South, 
the East and the West. All tribes of importance were rep- 
resented, except the Senecas — the most important tribe of 
all. They sat at home and were none of the Englishman's 
council. A peremptory summons was sent. If they did not 
appear forthwith to ratify the agreement, Bradstreet and his 
army (who were then posted at the Fort) would march 
against them and annihilate them. This unattractive pros- 
pect induced a change in the minds of the Senecas, and 
slowly and sadly they made their way to the great meeting. 

In the interval between the massacre and the Indian coun- 
cil, however, the English had been busy along the portage. 
Eleven blockhouses had been erected, about three-fifths of 
a mile apart, from the top of Lewiston Mountain to Fort 
Schlosser ; and these had been garrisoned and equipped with 
a cannon each. Moreover, before the Senecas arrived, John- 
son had got the assent of the tribes assembled at Niagara to 
erect a "depot of provisions" at the source of the river. Con- 
sequently, when the reluctant Senecas appeared at the coun- 
cil, they were not only constrained to give their consent to 
the erection of the Fort, which by that time was already 
built, but were obliged to acquiesce in Sir William's demand 
that the cession be made to include the new fort and enough 
land on the other side of the river to preserve the symmetry 
of the grant. 

It should be mentioned, that the grateful savages made 
Sir William a present of all the islands in the river "as a 
proof of their regard, and in remembrance of the trouble 
they had given him." Military law of that time forbidding 
the acceptance of gifts, Sir William turned over these twenty 
thousand acres to the crown. 



52 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

And so the Senecas were forgiven. They were really let 
off easy ; for the land along the Niagara was remote from 
the hearth-stone of the tribe, and, imposing as the magnifi- 
cent river was, it was nevertheless a spectacular bit of nature 
for which the Indian had little use. A thousand acres of 
land he probably considered by no means exorbitant price 
for a scalp. Only mature tribal experience could show the 
Senecas how costly his whistle was. He had had the keen 
satisfaction of avenging himself on a hated intruder ; he 
had glutted his heart with the joy of a glorious, bloody 
debauch ; and somewhere within him was a dim conscious- 
ness that he had registered a protest against the use of 
machinery as a substitute for human labor. He was not 
wise in his day and generation, but his folly served to 
smooth a path for a wiser people and a better civilization. 



ADDRESS 

By Albert E. Jones, Esq. 

I consider it a great honor to be invited to make a few 
remarks on this interesting occasion. I feel that the honor 
was conferred, not on account of any personal merit which 
I may possess, but as a token of warm friendliness towards 
the people of the land from which I came. I am proud of 
being an Englishman by birth. I am also proud of being 
an American by adoption. I can honestly say with thou- 
sands of my fellow-countrymen that had we not been born 
Englishmen, we would have insisted upon being born Ameri- 
cans. I believe, with a recent writer, that the time is com- 
ing when there will be no such name as Englishman or 
American, but that we people, of one blood, one tongue, one 
history, will have one common name with hearts that beat 
in unison. While waiting here some amusing thoughts have 
passed through my mind. The last time I had the pleasure 
of meeting our gracious friend, Mrs. Horton, she was a 
Daughter of the Revolution ; today she is a Colonial Dame. 
Yesterday mv own wife was a Daughter of the Revolution. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 53 

and a very rebellious one at that, for she had the audacity 
to tell me that by virtue of her being a Daughter, my three 
sons would be entitled to become Sons of the Revolution. 
Today, she is an amiable Colonial Dame. It was only 
recently that my friend, Herbert Bissell, acted as chairman 
of a pro-Boer meeting, to which he was ungracious enough 
not to invite me, for the reason, as I learned afterwards, 
that he thought I would be too neutral, and that I would be 
bored if I attended. Today he is a firm believer in Anglo- 
Saxon ascendancy — and so am I, because I have the honor 
of not only being an Englishman by birth and an American 
by adoption, but an associate member of the Grand Army 
of the Republic. I rejoice to think that while there was a 
time when all the horrors of war between two kindred peo- 
ple raged on both sides of this river, and it was unsafe for 
an American or an Englishman to show his face, the sweet 
bosom of the noble Niagara today teems with the people 
of both nations, with hearts full of peace and good-will 
towards each other, feeling that wherever the Union Jack 
and the Stars and Stripes float side by side, there is a com- 
munity of interests, race and kinship which no other two 
nations in the world possess. 

As you have gathered from the admirable and eloquent 
address of Professor Detmers and other speakers, we do 
not commemorate today the massacre of British by Ameri- 
cans, or vice versa, but the massacre by Indians of British 
soldiers. It was simply one of the many sad events in a 
war to put an end to French ascendancy, and thus destroy 
the power which had opposed the expansion of the colonies 
beyond the Alleghanies to the Great West; a war which, 
though cruel, was of inestimable value to succeeding genera- 
tions. It is interesting to remember that while the British 
troops were helping to clear a way for the colonists to the 
West, the Union Jack was being carried by Colonists from 
Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and 
Maine, assisting the British at Havana under Lord Albe- 
marle with his fleet and land forces in 1762, in wresting 
Cuba from the Spaniards, so that at the time of this massa- 



54 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

ere which we are commemorating today, Colonial troops and 
British troops were fighting shoulder to shoulder in another 
part of the world. What a glorious repetition of history. 
In 1762 we had the Colonial troops helping the mother coun- 
try against Spain ; in 1898, during the Spanish- American 
War, the mother country said to the European powers, who 
showed a disposition to help an expiring monarchy, 'hands 
off, gentlemen, there must be a fair fight, and no interference 
here.' We all know what happened between the Colonies 
and Great Britain subsequent to the date of the Devil's Hole 
massacre. It would be painful and serve no good purpose 
to dwell upon it, but even when the Colonists revolted, there 
was one little incident which has always appealed to me. 
When lovers part, perhaps forever, they are supposed to 
return the little presents of love and affection which they 
have given each other, but they generally retain a book or 
a picture or a lock of hair, or even a little faded flower as 
a sweet memory. The Colonists, although up in arms, 
retained the Union Jack of Queen Anne in the Union Flag 
of 1776, as a sort of token of the tie which had been so 
ruthlessly severed, and as a sign and remembrance of their 
common history with the people of the mother country. 
The two nations have again become welded together, and 
I think I am a true prophet when I say that never again 
will one fire a hostile shot at the other ; I will go further 
and say that if in any contingency there should be any 
attempt on the part of European nations to destroy Anglo- 
Saxon ascendancy, the Stars and Strips and the Union Jack 
will be found fighting alongside of each other, and the result 
is not to be feared. 

We have, of course, our jealousies, our rivalries, and 
our controversies, notwithstanding that we are next of kin 
to each other, but in the hour of sorrow the sympathies of 
one people will go out to the other without limit and with- 
out stint. 

When our beloved Queen — Victoria — passed away, the 
feeling of family sympathy and race kinship, so universally 
shown by the people of the United States to the British 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 55 

nation, was most touching and tender, and it created a 
grateful and responsive feeling in the hearts of all English- 
men that time will never eradicate. 

Before I close, I think the time opportune to refer to a 
sad event which is deep in all our hearts. Almost exactly 
a year ago today there flickered out of this world, at the 
city of Buffalo, the life of one of the noblest and best-loved 
Presidents — the work of a dastardly assassin. The tragedy 
was felt more keenly throughout the length and breath of 
the British Empire than in any other part of the world 
outside of our own land. The British people not only 
mourned for America as a nation in its sad affliction, but 
their sympathy, profound and sincere, went out in full 
measure to the gentle, sweet-faced lady who was so cruelly 
robbed of her life's loving partner, and who was her- 
self almost within the shadow of death. Peace be to the 
memory of William McKinley, whose noble and endear- 
ing qualities, whose integrity and ability, and whose admir- 
able, impartial and courageous administration won tributes 
from friend and foe alike. 



In its account of the ceremonies at the unveiling of the 
Devil's Hole tablet the Buffalo Evening Nezvs spoke as 
follows : 

Highly interesting were the ceremonies held yesterday 
afternoon at the unveiling of the tablet to commemorate the 
massacre at Devil's Hole. The dedication was made under 
the auspices of the Frontier Landmarks Association at the 
scene of the bloody tragedy on the American side of the 
Niagara River gorge, between Suspension Bridge and Lew- 
iston. The Gorge Route has a station there. 

The tablet which is imbedded in the front of a huge 
boulder was veiled with a large American flag. The unveil- 
ing and dedication was performed by Mrs. John Miller 
Horton, Regent of the Buffalo Chapter of the Daughters 
of the American Revolution, representing the Society of 
Colonial Dames. As she placed a large bunch of asters, tied 



56 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

with Vermont green, on the face of the tablet with these 
words : "I place these flowers here in the name of the Soci- 
ety of Colonial Dames of Vermont," every head was bared. 

The scene was an awe-inspiring one. To the rear, across 
the seething waters, loomed up the high cliffs, their outlines 
cut out in precipitous grandeur. The sullen roar of the 
rapids could be heard and its muffled voice sounded to the 
listening ear just as it did to other listening ears on that 
fateful autumnal day so many years ago. Above, almost 
overhead, the sycamores, the birches, hemlocks, pines, and 
the oak trees, swayed gently in the breeze, their rustling 
foliage singing one of Nature's own poems in honor of the 
occasion. 

In the foreground stood old Elias Witmere, eighty-five 
years old, of Lewiston, a lifelong resident of the vicinity. 
His gray head was bared and his age-scarred face bore the 
weight of years well. He was a self-invited participator in 
the proceedings, but no less welcome on that account. In 
his hand was a gigantic fishing rod, which he planted butt 
down on the ground, its slender length wavering in the 
infirm clutch of the aged man. 



[From the Buffalo Express, September 12, 1902. \ 

DEVIL'S HOLE TABLET. 



Commemorates a Bloody Massacre at That Spot by 
Seneca Indians in 1763. 

Story of the Affray. 



Regular Soldiers Escorting a Wagon Train Were 
Ambushed and Driven Over Cliffs. 



Tomorrow afternoon a tablet will be unveiled at the 
Devil's Hole in the gorge of the Niagara. It marks the 
scene of the massacre of English soldiers and wagoners by 
the Indians on September 14, 1763. On that morning a 






m- 



w 




I 



y 




MRS. JOHN MILLER NORTON 

Vice-President Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, and Regent 
Buffalo Chapter D. A. R. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 57 

small detachment of regulars convoying an empty wagon 
train returning from Fort Schlosser to Fort Niagara was 
ambushed in the woods at a small creek on the brink of 
the Devil's Hole. Men and horses were driven over the 
precipitous cliffs of the ravine through which the river runs. 
Some of the bodies caught in the trees and brush that grew 
from the rock face ; others crashed to the strand, fully four 
hundred feet below. Another detachment of regulars hur- 
rying to the assistance of their comrades was ambushed a 
mile or so away and wiped out. The little creek that runs 
through the glen of the Devil's Hole was red with blood 
that day and ever since has been known as Bloody Run. 

The massacre was done by a large party of young Seneca 
braves. The chiefs afterward denied that they led the 
party and insisted that their young men had got out of 
hand and did the deed in defiance of the elders' orders. The 
Indians were led by Farmer's Brother. 

Sir William Johnson, in command of the district, reported 
in official dispatches that five officers and sixty-four pri- 
vates were killed in the affray, besides the civilians in charge 
of the wagons. But three men escaped, two civilians and a 
drummer boy. Chief of these was John Steadman, a con- 
tractor, who furnished drivers and teams for the portage. 

The story of this massacre in time was incrusted with 
fable and legend. The ominous name of the spot, the grim, 
forbidding rocks and the terrible slaughter with all the 
accompanying horror of Indian outrage and mutilation, 
combined to render it even more terrible than the other mas- 
sacres that occurred during those years, the time of the Pon- 
tiac uprising. It struck terror into the hearts of the fron- 
tiersmen and daunted the gallant soldiers that had in charge 
the King's interests in the west. The massacre came at a 
time when every effort was being made to hurry reinforce- 
ments to the garrison at Detroit, beset by hordes of hostile 
savages. In fact, the convoy which was destroyed was 
returning from Fort Schlosser. where it had the day before 
taken stores for the expedition that was being sent to 
Detroit. The path on which the deed was done was the 



58 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

regular portage around the Falls, over which everything 
that was going to the West had to pass. If control of it 
were lost the most direct route would be closed and men 
and stores would have had to go West from Fort Pitt, now 
Pittsburgh, by canoe and frequent portage to the lake. 

The English did not lose the portage. The massacre 
was the greatest blow the Indians delivered in these parts. 
The troops hurried to the scene from Fort Niagara found 
only the scalped and mutilated bodies of their comrades ; 
not an Indian was seen ; they had fled from the vengeance 
of the redcoats. The Iroquois Confederacy had not dug 
up the hatchet with their brethren of the West, but the 
Senecas, one of the divisions, were disaffected and they 
were blamed for the massacre, not without good reason. 
National feeling led to the story that the deed was inspired 
by the French and some said that French troops took part, 
but that was an error. The Senecas paid dearly for their 
deed. They had to cede a strip of land along the river, from 
the head to mouth, a tract of thousands of acres. All the 
islands in the river also became the property of the crown. 
No lives were claimed in punishment, but the backwoods- 
men evened many a score without the formality of law. 

Parkman's Description. 

The facts of the massacre became obscured as decades 
passed. The region was a wilderness and tradition invested 
the tale with many fabrications. Francis Parkman, the his- 
torian, when writing his conspiracy of Pontiac, visited the 
Niagara Frontier and verified for himself the main facts of 
the affair. He investigated the traditions and personally 
interviewed the few inhabitants who had lived there in those 
dark days. Because of his close research and painstaking 
accuracy, the account written by him is accepted as the true 
version of the massacre. The beauty of his style and the 
vividness of his language leave little to be desired. His 
account follows : 

"The River Niagara, a short distance below the cataract, 
assumes an aspect scarcely less remarkable than that stu- 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 59 

pendous scene itself. Its channel is formed by a vast ravine, 
whose sides, now bare and weather-stained, now shaggy 
with forest trees, rise in cliffs of appalling height and steep- 
ness. Along this chasm pour all the waters of the lakes, 
heaving their furious surges with the power of an ocean 
and the rage of a mountain torrent. About three miles 
below the cataract the precipices which form the eastern 
wall of the ravine are broken by an abyss of awful depth 
and blackness, bearing at the present day the name of the 
Devil's Hole. In its shallowest part the precipice sinks sheer 
down to the depth of eighty feet, where it meets a chaotic 
mass of rocks, descending with an abrupt declivity to unseen 
depths below. Within the cold and damp recesses of the 
gulf a host of forest trees have rooted themselves ; and, 
standing on the perilous brink, one may look down on the 
mingled foliage of ash, poplar and maple, while above them 
all the spruce and fir shoot their sharp and rigid spires 
upward into sunlight. The roar of the convulsed river 
swells heavily on the ear ; and far below its headlong waters, 
careering in foam, may be discerned through the openings 
of the matted foliage. 

"On the 13th of September a numerous train of pack- 
horses and wagons proceeded from the lower landing to 
Fort Schlosser; and on the following morning set out on 
their return, guarded by an escort of twenty-four soldiers. 
They pursued their slow progress until they reached a point 
where the road passed along the brink of the Devil's Hole. 
The gulf yawned on their left, while on their right the road 
was skirted by low, densely wooded hills. Suddenly they 
were greeted by the blaze and clatter of one hundred rifles. 
Then followed the startled cries of men and the bounding 
of maddened horses. At the next instant a host of Indians 
broke screeching from the woods and rifle, butt and toma- 
hawk finished the bloody work. All was over in a moment. 
Horses leaped the precipice ; men were driven shrieking into 
the abyss ; teams and wagons went over crashing to atoms 
among the rocks below. Tradition relates that the drum- 
mer bov of the detachment was caught in his fall among 



60 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

the branches of a tree, where he hung suspended by his 
drum strap. Being but shghtly injured he disengaged him- 
self and hiding in the recesses of the gulf finally escaped. 
One of the teamsters also who was wounded at the first 
fire contrived to crawl into the woods, where he lay con- 
cealed till the Indians had left the place. Besides these two 
the only survivor was Steadman, the conductor of the con- 
voy, who, being well mounted and seeing the whole body 
forced helpless toward the precipice, wheeled his horse and 
resolutely spurred through the crowd of Indians. One of 
them, it is said, seized his bridle, but he freed himself by 
the dexterous use of his knife and plunged into the woods, 
untouched by the bullets which whistled about his head. 
Flying at full speed through the forest he reached Fort 
Schlosser in safety. 

"The distant sound of the Indians' rifles had been heard 
by a party of soldiers who occupied a small fortified camp 
near the lower landing. Forming in haste, they advanced 
immediately to the rescue. In anticipation of this move- 
ment the Indians, who were nearly five hundred in number, 
had separated into two parts, one of which had stationed 
itself at the Devil's Hole to waylay the convoy, while the 
other formed an ambuscade upon the road a mile nearer 
the landing place. The soldiers, marching precipitately and 
huddled in a close body, were suddenly assailed by a volley 
of rifles which stretched half their number dead upon the 
road. Then rushing from the forest the Indians cut down 
the survivors with merciless ferocity. A small remnant only 
escaped the massacre and fled to Fort Niagara with the tid- 
ings. Major Wilkins, who commanded at this post, lost no 
time in marching to this spot with nearly the whole strength 
of his garrison. Not an Indian was to be found. At the 
two places of ambuscades about seventy dead bodies were 
counted, naked, scalpless and so horribly mangled that many 
of them could not be recognized. All the wagons had been 
broken to pieces and such of the horses as were not driven 
over the precipice had been carried ofif, laden, doubtless, with 
the plunder. The ambuscade of the Devil's Hole has gained 




HON. HERBERT P. BISSELL 

Vice-President Niagara Gorge Railroad, the donor of the Devil's Hole Tablet 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 61 

a traditionary immortality, adding fearful interest to a scene 
whose native horrors need no aid from the imagination. 

"The Seneca warriors, aided probably by some of the 
western Indians, were the authors of this unexpected attack. 
Their hostility did not end here. Several weeks afterward 
Major Wilkins, with a force of six hundred regulars, col- 
lected with great effort throughout the provinces, was 
advancing to the relief of Detroit. As the boats were slowly 
forcing their way against the swift current above the falls 
of Niagara, they were assailed by a mere handful of Indians, 
thrown into confusion and driven back to Fort Schlosser 
with serious loss. The next attempt was more fortunate, 
the boats reaching Lake Erie without further attack; but 
the inauspicious opening of the expedition was followed by 
results that were more disastrous. As they approached their 
destination, a violent storm overtook them in the night. The 
frail batteaux, tossing upon the merciless waves of Lake 
Erie, were overset, driven ashore, and many of them dashed 
to pieces. About seventy men perished, all the ammunition 
and stores were destroyed, and the shattered flotilla was 
forced back to Niagara." 



{From the Rochester Post-Express of September 15, 1902.] 

THE DEVIL'S HOLE MASSACRE. 



On September 14, 1763, one hundred and thirty-nine 
years ago yesterday, British soldiers guarding a supply train 
were massacred by Seneca Indians at what was known as 
the Devil's Hole on Niagara River. On Saturday a tablet, 
marking the spot, was unveiled by the Niagara Frontier 
Landmarks Association. 

The first account of this massacre was published at Can- 
andaigua, N. Y., in 1824, appearing as an appendix to the 
first edition of Seaver's "Narrative qf the Life of Mrs. Mary 
Jemison." She had been captured by the Seneca Indians 
in 1755 and lived among them for many years. It was 



62 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Mary Jemison's recollection that the massacre took place in 
November, 1759. But she was mistaken. A battle was 
fought on the Niagara in November, 1759, and two prison- 
ers and some oxen were brought into the Genesee country, 
but the massacre of Devil's Hole took place in September, 
four years later. On December 23, 1823, Linus S. Everett 
of Buffalo wrote a letter to the editor of the "Narrative," \n 
which he said, (we follow the spelling in the original) : 

I have often wondered that no authentic account has 
ever been given of that bloody and tragical scene 
At this place (Fort Sclusser), an old gentleman now resides 
to whom I am indebted for the best account of the affair 
that can be easily obtained. His name is Jesse Ware — his 
age about seventy-four. Although he was not a resident of 
this part of the country at the time of the event, yet from 
his intimate acquaintance with one of the survivors he is 
able to give much information which otherwise could not 
be obtained. The account that he gives is as follows : In 
July, 1759, the British, under Sir William Johnson, took 
possession of Forts Niagara and Sclusser, which had before 
been in the hands of the French. At this time the Seneca 
Indians, (which were a numerous and powerful nation), 
were hostile to the British and warmly allied to the French. 
These two posts, Niagara and Sclusser, were of great 
importance to the British on account of affording the means 
of communication with the posts above, on the upper lakes. 
In 1760 a contract was made between Sir William Johns- 
ton and a Mr. Stedman to construct a portage road from 
Oueenston landing to Fort Sclusser, a distance of eight 
miles, in order to facilitate the transportation of provision, 
ammunition, etc., from one place to the other. In con- 
formity to this agreement, on the 20th of June, 1763, Sted- 
man had completed his road and appeared at Queenston 
landing (now Lewiston), with twenty-five portage wagons 
and one hundred horses and oxen to transport to Fort Sclus- 
ser the King's stores. At this time Sir William Johnston 
was suspicious of the intentions of the Senecas; for, after 
the surrender of the forts by the French, they had appeared 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 63 

uneasy and hostile. In order to prevent the teams, drivers 
and goods receiving injury, he detached three hundred 
troops to guard them across the portage. The teams, under 
this escort, started from Queenston Landing; Stedman 
who had charge of the whole, was on horseback, and rode 
between the troops and teams, all the troops being in front. 
On a small hill near the Devil's Hole, at that time was a 
redoubt of twelve men, which served as a kind of guard, on 
ordinary occasions, against the depredations of the savages. 
"On the arrival of the troops and teams at the Devil's Hole," 
says a manuscript in the hands of my informant, "the 
sachems, chiefs and warriours of the Seneca Indians sallied 
from the adjoining w^oods by thousands, (where they had 
been concealed for sometime before for that nefarious pur- 
pose), and falling upon the troops, teams and drivers, and 
the guard of twelve men before mentioned, they killed all 
the men but three on the spot, or by driving them, together 
with the teams, down the precipice, which was about seventy 
or eighty feet. The Indians seized Stedman's horse by the 
bridle, while he was on him, designing, no doubt, to make 
his sufferings more lasting than that of his companions ; 
but while the bloody scene was acting the attention of the 
Indian who held the horse of Stedman being arrested, he 
cut the reins of his bridle, clapped spurs to his horse, and 
rode over the dead and dying into the adjacent woods with- 
out receiving injury from the enemy's firing. Thus he 
escaped and besides him two others, one a drummer who 
fell among the trees, was caught by his drum-straps, and 
escaped unhurt ; the other one, who fell down the precipice 
and broke his thigh, but crawled to the landing or garrison 
down the river." The following September the Indians 
gave Stedman a piece of land as a reward for his bravery. 
Some errors were discovered in this narrative, and when 
the second edition of the life of Mary Jemison was pub- 
lished (Batavia: 1842) a new account of the massacre at 
Devil's Hole was prepared by Ebenezer Mix. As this was 
retained in the edition which Lewis H. Morgan edited 
(Rochester: 1856) it is presumably correct in the more 



64 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

important particulars. In the two editions prepared under 
the direction of WilUam P. Letchworth (Buffalo: 1877 
and New York: 1898) the account is omitted altogether. 
Mix said that Stedman started on June 20, 1763, from 
Lewiston to Fort Schlosser ; and that there were fifty officers 
and men, instead of three hundred. The Devil's Hole, 
where the Senecas congregated, was about midway between 
the two places. The road approached within a few feet of 
the edge of a precipice at an acute angle in the eastern bank 
of the river, which descended from eighty to one hundred 
feet almost perpendicularly. Mix says : 

"As soon as the British transportation party arrived at 
this place the Indians sallied from their ambuscade, enclosed 
the whole body of the English ; and either killed on the spot, 
or drove ofif the banks, every soldier, officer, teamster, and 
assistant, amounting to nearly one hundred men, together 
with their carriages, loading, and everything else pertaining 
to the expedition, except Mr. Stedman, the superintendent, 
who was on horseback." 

Stedman's escape is detailed as in the previous account. 
Mix seems sure that Stedman is the only one who was not 
either driven or thrown ofif into Devil's Hole. "Tradition 
has transmitted to us various accounts of the fate of some 
few others of the party, that is, that one, two, or three 
others escaped with life, after being driven ofif the bank, 
although badly wounded and maimed by the fall." The 
escape of the drummer-boy is credited. (His name was 
William Matthews.) The Indians believed that Mr. Sted- 
man must have been specially favored by the Great Spirit 
and gave him the land over which he galloped in his escape. 
The next year, however, the Indians repented and ceded the 
tract with other lands to the King of Great Britain for a 
carrying place around the falls of Niagara. 

Both accounts of the massacre set the date as June 20, 
1763. This, however, was incorrect. It occurred in Sep- 
tember of that year. Writing from Johnson Hall under 
date of September 25, 1763. Sir William Johnston said to 
the lords of trade in a hurriedly written postscript : "This 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 65 

moment I have received an express informing me that an 
officer and twenty-four men, who were escorting several 
wagons and ox-teams over the carrying place at Niagara, 
had been attacked and entirely defeated, together with two 
companies of Colonel Willmot's regiment who marched to 
sustain them. Our losses on this occasion consist of Lieu-, 
tenants Campbell, Frazier, and Rosco of the regulars. Cap- 
tain Johnson and Lieutenant Deayton of the provincials, 
and sixty privates killed, with about eight or nine wounded ; 
the enemy, who are supposed to be Senecas of Chenussio, 
scalped all the dead, took all their clothes, arms, and ammu- 
nition, and threw several of their bodies down a precipice." 
From this account, the exact date of the massacre cannot 
be told, but it was about the middle of September. In his 
history of Schoharie County, Simms gives an account of 
the massacre based upon the journal of a friend who visited 
the Devil's Hole in 1806. Simms says it is ''the most authen- 
tic account ever obtained." He gives the date of the mas- 
sacre as September 17th. Recent investigators think the 
date was September 14th. 



66 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

BUFFALO'S FIRST SCHOOL 
HOUSE 

TABLET UNVEILED OCTOBER 11, 1902. 



The fifth in the series of tablets, unveiled under the aus- 
pices of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, com- 
memorates the first school house erected in Bufifalo, and is 
placed upon the R. G. Dun Building, at the corner of Swan 
and Pearl streets, which stands upon the exact site occupied 
by the original school edifice. 

The tablet bears the following inscription : 

On This Site Was 

BUFFALO'S FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE 

Built 1807-8; Destroyed Dec. 30, 1813 

At the Burning of the Village 

By the British. 



Erected by the 
NIAGARA FRONTIER LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION 

1902. 

The unveiling took place October 11, 1902, and the exer- 
cises, while simple, were most interesting. Owing to the 
uncertain state of the weather, they were held in Room 76 
of the building, through the courtesy of John J. McWil- 
liams, Esq., and the unveiling was performed at the street 
immediately upon the close of the formal exercises indoors. 
There was a large attendance. 

Hon. T. Guilford Smith, one of the regents of the Uni- 
versity of the State of New York, presided, and made a 
few remarks in opening the exercises. Hon. Charles R. 
Skinner, State Superintendent of Ptiblic Instruction, and 



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LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 67 

Professor Henry P. Emerson, Superintendent of Education 
in the city of Buffalo, were also present to take part in the 
exercises. Rev. E. H. Dickinson of the North Presbyterian 
Church offered prayer at the commencement of the exer- 
cises, and pronounced the benediction at the close. 

A most interesting feature was a history of the build- 
ing of the original school and the preliminary movements 
thereto read by Master George Tilden Coleman, a member 
of Buffalo Chapter, Children of the American Revolution. 
It was listened to with much interest and was as follows : 

The First School House in Buffalo. 

Those who feel an interest in the early history of Buffalo 
will be gratified to learn that there is now in existence, 
among the miscellaneous papers of the Historical Society, 
a document giving an authentic account of the beginning 
of school house building in the city of Buffalo. This is 
nothing less than the original account book containing the 
subscriptions and payments toward building the "little red 
school house," of historic fame. 

It is only a memorandum book of coarse paper, with 
probably the roughest brown pasteboard cover ever seen on 
a book; yet it is extremely interesting, not only as giving 
an authentic account of the erection of the first school house 
in the city, and as showing the names of a large proportion 
of the inhabitants of the then infant village, but also because 
it is one of the very few documents relating to local history 
which survived the burning of the village in 1813. With 
the solitary exception of the town book of the town of Erie 
from 1805 to 1808, the account book is the most valuable 
article to the student of local history in the whole collection 
of the Buffalo Historical Society. The following is a lit- 
eral copy of the first page: 

"At a meeting of the Inhabitance of the Vilage of Buf- 
faloe meet on the twenty-ninth day of March, Eighteen hun- 
dred & seven, at Joseph Landon's Inn by a Vote of Sd meet- 
ing Zenas Barker in the Chair for the purpos to arect a 
School Hous in Sd Village by a Subscription of the Inhabi- 
tanse. 



68 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

"also Voted that Samuel Pratt, Joseph Landon & Joshua 
Gillett be a Committee to See that they are appropriated on 
the School House above mentioned which Subscriptions are 
to be paid in by the first day of June next or Such part of 
it as Shall be wanted by that time." 

And the following is a list of the subscribers, and the 
amount subscribed by each : 

Salvanus Mabee $20.00 

Zenas Barker 10.00 

Thomas Fourth 3.00 

Joshua Gillett 15.00 

Joseph Wells 7.00 

John Johnson 10.00 

Nathaniel W. Sever 10.00 

Isaac H. Bennett 3.00 

Levi Strong 5.00 

William Hull 10.00 

Samuel Pratt 22.00 

Richard Mann 5.00 

Isabel Adkins 5.00 

Samuel Andrews i .00 

Garrett Freeland i .00 

Billa Sherman 871/2 

All the subscriptions were dated March 30, 1807, the day 
after the meeting. Each man's name was placed on a page 
of the book and charged with the amount subscribed, and 
then credited with the amount paid, either by cash, labor 
or material. 

The carpenter work appears to have been all done by 
Levi Strong and George Kith, whose accounts were also 
in the book. Their bills for work amounted to sixty-eight 
dollars and fifty cents. The credits for work and material 
were mostly in April, 1807, showing that the building was 
started immediately after the subscription. 

From the fact that Joshua Gillett is credited with two 
and a quarter gallons of whisky on the 13th of April, I 
should presume that "raising" took place on that day. Btit 
the funds of credit must have been low, and Buffalo must 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 69 

have remained without a school house for a year and a half 
more; for it was not until the loth of November, 1808, 
eight months after Buffalo had become the county seat of 
Niagara County, that the shingles were procured for the 
school house, when two thousand were furnished by Samuel 
Pratt. 

The building was doubtless finished up for use that win- 
ter (1808-9) for, on the 23d day of May, 1809, there was 
a general settling up, and the last entries of small cash pay- 
ments are made in the book. 



\From the Buffalo Express, of October 12, 1902. \ 

SCHOOL HOUSE TABLET. 



Unveiling Ceremonies at the Corner of Swan and Pearl 

Streets. 



Two Kinds of History. 



Superintendent Skinner Gives His Opinion as to 
Their Relative Value. 



The spirit of local pride and civic patriotism was well 
represented in the gathering which yesterday witnessed the 
exercises that accompanied the unveiling of the tablet pre- 
sented by the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, to 
mark the site of Buffalo's first school. The audience, though 
small, numbered many men and women prominent in the 
historical societies and in the educational development of 
the city. 

The tablet has been placed on the Swan Street face of 
the R. G. Dun Building, at the southwest corner of Swan 
and Pearl streets, which occupies the site of the school. 
Owing to the uncertainty of the weather the exercises were 
held in Room 76 of the Dun Building. The programme 
of the unveiling was simple. 



70 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

T. Guilford Smith, a regent of the University of the 
State of New York, opened the ceremony with a brief 
address, in which he praised the spirit that had prompted 
the memorial and complimented those present as represen- 
tative of the higher culture and patriotism of the city. Then 
came the invocation by the Rev. E. H. Dickinson. 

An interesting feature of the programme was the read- 
ing of an essay by Master George Tilden Coleman, reciting 
the history of the erection of the first school building. On 
March i8, 1807, at the tavern of Joseph Landon a few far- 
sighted citizens started the movement for the establishment 
of the school. The building, which stood on the site at the 
southwest corner of Swan and Pearl streets, was finished in 
1808. Its career was brief, however, as it was destroyed by 
fire when the British and Indians descended on the village 
on December 30, 1813. Master Coleman quoted the follow- 
ing account of the first meeting of the founders of the 
school, which is preserved in the archives of the Buffalo 
Historical Society : 

"At a meeting of the inhabitants of the village of Buf- 
falo, met on the 29th day of March, 1807, at Joseph Lan- 
don's Inn, by a vote of said meeting, Zenas Barker was in 
the chair, for the purpose to erect a school house in said 
village by a subscription of the inhabitants. 

"Also voted that Samuel Pratt, Joseph Landon, Joshua 
Gillett be a committee to receive said moneys so raised and 
to see that they are appropriated for the school house above 
mentioned, which subscriptions are to be paid in by the 
1st day of June, next, or such part of its as shall be wanted 
by that time." 

Henry P. Emerson, Superintendent of Education, deliv- 
ered an address on the present school system of BufTalo. He 
said that the first school of Bufifalo deserved to be com- 
memorated as the forerunner of a system that has devel- 
oped wonderfully in the last few years, so that Bufifalo 
could point with pride to her public schools as comparing 
favorably with any system of schools among the most pro- 
gressive cities of the United States. He dwelt on the neces- 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 71 

sity of developing the schools, as it is the spirit of patriotism 
and national pride intelligently applied in the schools that 
make up the nobility of the men and women of a nation like 
our own. 

Then spoke the distinguished guest of the day, the Hon. 
Charles R. Skinner, the State Superintendent of Education. 

"I congratulate you," said Mr. Skinner, "on your pur- 
pose to preserve historic landmarks. It is an encouraging 
sign to note the rising tide of historic interest. You are 
fortunate enough to live in a section of the country so rich 
in historic interest, from the shores of Lake Erie to Lake 
Ontario, the thrilling history of which I think every Ameri- 
can citizen should read. You do a great work when you 
place before the people, and especially before the youth of 
your city, the landmarks of historic places." 

Mr. Skinner said that in the second century of its life 
the United States had taken its place at the head of the 
nations of the earth. He believed that the wonderful prog- 
ress of the country was largely due to the spirit of the 
public schools and he made a strong plea for the teaching 
of local history in the schools. 

"We are making history very rapidly these days," he 
said. "The public schools should be centers of historic 
interest and in my estimation it is more important that the 
youth of the country should be trained to preserve local 
history than to master the history of the ancients." 

A benediction by the Rev. E. H. Dickinson ended the 
indoor exercises. All went below and assembled on the 
Swan Street side of the building, where the tablet was for- 
mally unveiled. A veil composed of two silk American 
flags covered the tablet. The cords of the veil were drawn 
aside by two little girls, Eleanor Ramsdell, representing the 
Children of the American Revolution, and Dorothy Steele, 
whose great-great-great-grandfather, Zenas Barker, presided 
over the first meeting held to build the school house and 
whose great-grandfather was Buffalo's first superintendent 
of education. 



72 NIAGARA FRONTIER 



THE BARTON-WHEELER TABLET 

UNVEILED JUNE 20, 1903. 



\From the Buffalo Express of June, 1903.] 

TO THE SCOTT BATTERY. 



Memorial Tablet Unveiled by the Niagara Frontier 
Landmarks Association at Lewiston. 



Early Days of Battle Recalled. 

Historic Lewiston was the scene of notable exercises yes- 
terday in connection with the unveiling of a tablet to mark 
the spot where Gen. Winfield Scott stationed a battery of 
United States artillery at the opening of the battle of 
Oueenston. This tablet is the latest in the series of memo- 
rials being placed by the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Asso- 
ciation to mark historic spots. Yesterday's exercises were 
the most largely attended, interesting and notable in every 
way of any so far held. 

The event commemorated was associated with historic 
incidents of far-reaching importance and gave the orators 
of the day a theme that afforded them inspiration and not 
even the hard rain of the afternoon was sufficient to dampen 
the enthusiasm of the occasion. 

No more picturesque, as well as historic place, exists in 
this part of the country than Lewiston and no more appro- 
priate and beautiful spot for a memorial to the valor of 
heroes of a war can be found than the lawn in front of the 
stately Barton mansion, from which a view up and down 
the lower Niagara is obtained and from which, looking 
directly across the river, one sees the heights the American 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 73 

tioops stormed under the protection of the battery the gal- 
lant Scott stationed there on that fateful day, October 13, 
1812. 

The mansion occupies a commanding eminence, and even 
a casual visitor can see at a glance what good judgment 
young Scott, then a lieutenant colonel, afterward command- 
ing general of the United States army, showed in selecting 
that place for his battery. The house is now surrounded by 
stately trees and the mansion itself is one of the most inter- 
esting and picturesque to be seen west of the Mohawk Val- 
ley and the banks of the Hudson, so famous for their colo- 
nial manors. Passing within, between the columns of its 
oldtime portal, one enters a hall with a winding stairway 
of the kind in vogue in colonial days. The drawing room 
and other apartments are filled with old-fashioned furniture 
and paintings of the Bartons of almost a century ago, some 
of whom took part in the famous battle which is commemo- 
rated in the tablet unveiled yesterday. In the cellar is the 
oven in which was baked bread for the American troops 
during the war that followed that battle. 

The tablet has been placed on a boulder which marks 
the spot where the battery is supposed to have stood. This 
is about twenty feet east of the veranda of the mansion. 
The tablet, which is of bronze, and a fine piece of work- 
manship, bears an inscription as follows : 

On this spot. General Winfield Scott, 

October 13th, 1812, stationed a battery of 

United States Artillery at the opening of the 

Battle of Queenston, the first conflict on 

the Niagara Frontier in the War of 1812. 



Erected June, 1903, and presented to the 

Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 

By Kate Barton Wheeler, a descendant of 

Major Benjamin Barton, U. S. A. 

As will be observed, the giver of the tablet, Mrs. Wheeler, 
who was the hostess of the occasion, is a descendant of the 
Major Barton, who fought in this battle and who in 1815 



74 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

built the mansion which stands nearby. His portrait, dig- 
nified and stately, hangs upon the wall of the drawing 
room. It was that Barton who was a member of the famous 
trading firm of those pioneer days, Porter, Barton & Co., 
and it was one of the interesting coincidents of yesterday 
that the gift of Mrs. Wheeler, a descendant of Major Barton, 
was presented in her name by Peter A. Porter, a descendant 
of her ancestor's partner. General Porter, whose name is 
so closely associated both with the military and commercial 
history of the frontier. 

The occasion brought together a large company of repre- 
sentatives of patriotic societies and members of old families. 
The buttons and badges which signify membership in the 
Sons of the War of 1812, etc., were numerous. The special 
train which left Bufifalo at 1.30 p. m. in a pouring rain con- 
veyed to Lewiston three passenger coaches fairly well filled 
with members of the Landmarks Association and others. 
They found the Barton mansion filled with Lewiston folk, 
so that when the exercises began, with the rain still descend- 
ing, shortly after three o'clock, a company of several hun- 
dred witnessed the ceremonies. 

Trueman G. Avery, President of the Niagara Frontier 
Landmarks Association, presided and the following .pro- 
gramme was carried out : 

Invocation Rev. Joshua Cook 

Address of Welcome J. Boardman Scovell 

Men's Club of Lewiston 

Remarks Trueman G. Avery, Chairman 

Presentation of Tablet Hon. Peter A. Porter 

On Behalf of Mrs. Albert J. Wheeler 

Unveiling and Decorating of Tablet 

Misses Catharine and Mary Wheeler 

Acceptance of Tablet George D. Emerson, Secretary 

Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 

Address Frank H. Severance, Esq., Secretary 

Buffalo Historial Society 

Music, "America" Frederick Howard, Esq., Leader 

Benediction Rev. John W. Ross 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 75 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME 

By J. BOARDMAN SCOVELL 

On Behalf of the Men's Club of Lewiston 

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Niagara Frontier Land- 
marks Association and its Constituent Organisations: 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

To all friends and patriotic citizens, Greeting ! 

In glancing over the committee of the Men's Club of 
Lewiston, who represent it in the Niagara Frontier Land- 
marks Association, the reason why this delightful duty has 
been delegated to me becomes apparent — for I am a native 
of this beautiful and historic village ; whereas my colleagues 
are either importations, such as Messrs. Hobbie, Shepard, 
Kerr, Gleason, Hofifman and others, or they are mere an- 
nexations to native daughters, such as our genial hosts, Mr. 
Powell and Mr. Wheeler. 

I cannot tender to you, Mr. Chairman and friends, the 
key to these grounds for no key is needed to open to you 
the loyal and generous heart of their possessor ; nor can I 
present to you in a casket the freedom of this peaceful 
village, for the treasure of its freedom comes not as the gift 
of its willing citizens, but from the open and liberal hand 
of the Giver of every good and perfect gift, who has made 
this locality one of unsurpassed natural beauty and attract- 
iveness. 

Dear old Lewiston was dubbed "Back-number Town" 
and was admittedly in a state of "innocuous desuetude" for 
the half century before the advent of its Men's Club; but 
its citizens now point with pride to its new High School 
building, to St. Peter's Church and to its thriving Free 
Library as evidences of increased prosperity as well as of 
awakened civic, educational and religious influences ; and 
our citizens are beginning to realize that our village is one 
"in which every prospect pleases and only" — water and 



76 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

light are needed to make it the most desirable suburb of 
Buffalo and Niagara Falls. 

But it is historic Lewiston in which we are interested 
today. Two hundred twenty-four years ago Lewiston was 
the chief post of the French on the Niagara Frontier and 
this hill on which we stand was then referred to by the 
French explorers as the "first of the three mountains" in 
the portage around the great cataract. One hundred eighty- 
four years ago Chabert Joncaire built "the picketed house" 
here with the consent of the Senecas. The first suggestion 
for the chartering of a municipality here was made by Sir 
William Johnson, who is to be a leading character in the 
historical novel of the Niagara Frontier now being written 
by our beloved and venerated friend who has just invoked 
God's blessing upon our gathering. The suggestion of Sir 
William was acted upon by Governor Lewis, from whom 
the village takes its name, and pursuant to Chapter 78, of 
the Laws of 1798, the Surveyor General, one hundred years 
ago this summer, laid out and platted this village — the State 
then donating to it its broad streets, its ample parks and 
well chosen grounds for its public buildings, municipal, edu- 
cational and religious. With such auspicious beginnings 
the new village of Lewiston grew apace, for it was consid- 
ered "the key to the trade of the Western States," and its 
first and most prominent settler was Major Benjamin 
Barton, whose first residence on this hill was burned, as 
were the other houses in the village, by the British and 
Indians shortly after the events we now celebrate. The 
present homestead, now occupied by our hostess, was erected 
in 181 5 ; my home in the village was built by Rev. David M. 
Smith, the missionary, in 181 7, in which year work was 
begun on that noble local landmark, the old Presbyterian 
Church, standing in the corner of the quiet village cemetery 
in which are buried so many who participated in the battle 
of Queenston Heights, notably Captain Nelson and Ashael 
Sage. 

We Lewistonians thank the Niagara Frontier Landmarks 
Association for that other tablet in this township which 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 77 

marks the scene of the Devil's Hole Massacre during the 
French and Indian War; we thank you for coming to us 
again today ; and we pledge to welcome you again and again 
and again when you shall hereafter come to honor us with 
your presence and to mark the site of Joncaire's Cabin, the 
ramparts of Fort Gray, the line of the first railroad operated 
on this continent, and perhaps the spot on which stood the 
inn of Betty O'Flannigan, which was spared when the 
village was burned and in which Cooper wrote "The Spy." 

This week has been a memorable one from the standpoint 
of the historical student and patriot, especially in Western 
New York; Sunday was the 126th birthday of the Stars 
and Stripes. Mav they wave forever. On Monday after- 
noon the plans for the McKinley monument to grace Niag- 
ara Square were approved by the commissioners in Buffalo 
and that evening the Sons of the American Revolution were 
stirred by the masterly address of the president of their 
Empire State Society. On Tuesday afternoon many of the 
ladies now present attended and were enthused at the session 
of the Daughters of the American Revolution at the Buffalo 
Historical Society Building. Wednesday was the anniver- 
sary of the Battle of Bunker Hill and Liberty Bell was taken 
with military escort from Independence Hall in Philadelphia 
to Boston to be a feature of the celebration of the day upon 
which American Colonists first fought for those principles 
of human freedom on which have since been based all our 
modern progress. On Thursday the annual State Encamp- 
ment of the Grand Army of the Republic at Niagara Falls 
kindled much patriotic enthusiasm in the vicinity. Yester- 
day was the anniversary of the Declaration of War by the 
United States against Great Britain in 1812, which event 
we appropriately celebrate today by dedicating and unveil- 
ing a boulder and tablet on which Scott's battery covered 
the crossing of the United States troops in that war to their 
attack on Oueenston Heights. 

When we read of the successful ascent by Wolfe to the 
Plains of Abraham in the French and Indian War; when 
we glory in the results of that opening battle of the Revolu- 



78 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

tion at Bunker Hill ; when we consider the storming of 
Chapultepec in the Mexican War ; when we hear veterans 
of the Civil War relate the bravery of Pickett's charge at 
Gettysburg; when we cheer our heroic young President 
who led his Rough Riders up San Juan in the Cuban War, 
and then when we visit the scenes of those daring attacks 
on fortified heights and compare them with yon mantling 
heights on the farther side of the rushing Niagara, then, I 
say, we marvel at the supreme courage, bravery and heroism 
of the regulars who crossed the Niagara River from here 
and stormed Queenston Heights on the morning of the 13th 
of October, 1812, their crossing, advance and attack covered 
only from the batteries stationed at old Fort Gray and at 
this spot; and wc feel that Lewiston is justified in claiming 
ability to cap the climax of a glorious week of historic 
anniversaries and to extend a proud, patriotic and personal 
welcome to all who are gathered here, which welcome I now 
cordially tender on behalf of the Barton family, for the 
Men's Club of Lewiston and its members, and for the offi- 
cials of the village and its citizens. 

The greeting of Lewiston during the last half of the 
nineteenth century was that of the Roman Gladiator: "We 
who are about to die salute you," but thanks to the pro- 
gressive spirit of the Men's Club which has been fostered 
and encouraged in its efforts by the ladies of the com- 
munity, — God bless them ! — I can express their welcome to 
you today in these words of greeting, Lewiston, which is 
about to live again, salutes you ! 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 79 

ADDRESS 

By Hon. Peter A. Porter, 

Presenting the Tablet on Behalf of Mrs. Albert 
J. Wheeler. 

When the poet wrote — 

"How fleet the works of men ; 
Back to the earth again; 
Ancient and holy things 
Fade like a dream," 

he but expressed the tendency of the ages ; for undoubtedly 
that is true of many material things. But, even though 
man is prone to forget, it should not be permitted to be true, 
so far as the memories of great and glorious events of the 
past are concerned, nor so far as the parts which our ances- 
tors bore in the happenings of their times. And, as to such 
events along our shore of this historic river, it is the prov- 
ince and the special object of the Landmarks Association, 
over whose short but successful career you, sir, have so 
admirably presided, to see that they are neither allowed to 
sink into oblivion nor to remain unknown to the passerby. 

And it is for the purpose of adding another chapter to 
the open book of our history which the Landmarks Asso- 
ciation is publishing — verily, it is a book which he who runs 
may read ; whose pages are writ in enduring bronze, which 
is never closed, whose leaves are never turned, but all of 
them perpetually lie open to the eyes of men — that we are 
assembled here now. 

Ninety-eight years ago, on this frontier, there was formed 
the firm of Porter, Barton & Co., which, under lease from 
the State of New York, operated the old Niagara portage, 
extending from Lewiston around the falls of Niagara to 
Schlosser, besides "Durham" boats on the upper river and 
vessels on Lake Ontario and on the other Great Lakes. 

It thus became a prominent, if not a controlling factor, 
in the transportation business between the seaboard and, 



80 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

the then far west, and, from the nature of its transactions, 
aided largely in the settlement of the west and in the devel- 
opment of our inland commerce ; and, in connection with the 
other firms in the east, was the first line of forwarders that 
ever contracted to take freight at tidewater and deliver it as 
far off as Chicago, entirely on American territory. 

The members of that firm, as individuals, bore their full 
part in the fierce struggle of the War of 1812, some of them 
risking their lives in army service, and all losing heavily of 
their fortunes, but endeavoring, first of all, to do their full 
duty to their country, by rendering every aid in their power, 
in her hour of need. And, by reason of its occupation and 
its facilities (for, from 1805 to 1820, its was the most impor- 
tant business in this section), as a firm it was able to, and 
did, render material aid in that war. In 1812, Black Rock, 
Schlosser and Lewiston were the points of industry along 
the American frontier, and at each of these points that firm 
had wharves, storehouses and other improvements, and at 
each place resided a member thereof to look after the busi- 
ness. All of their improvements, as well as their homes, 
were destroyed by the British in December, 181 3, when they 
devastated this entire river bank with fire and the sword. 

Here, on this very spot, when that war was declared, 
dwelt Benjamin Barton, one of the pioneers of the region 
and one of its most influential, men. That old firm was dis- 
solved long ago, but the close ties of friendship among its 
members were broken only by death, and the friendly feel- 
ings among their descendants have remained unchanged, 
even unto today. This is evidenced by the courtesy which 
now induces the granddaughter of one of the members of 
that famous old partnership to ask the grandson of another 
member thereof to act as her spokesman in the official pres- 
entation of this monument, which commemorates an historic 
event of a great war in which her ancestor rendered distin- 
guished service to his country. Recognizing the good which 
the Landmarks Association is accomplishing, desirous of 
aiding in that work, rightfully appreciative of the part her 
grandfather bore, both in that war and the building up of 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 81 

1 ^ ■ ' frontier ; proud of the fact that the cannon which fired 
the first shot in the first battle of the War of 1812 was 
located beside the house which that ancestor then owned 
and occupied, and desirous of suitably marking the site of 
that event, she has erected this memorial, which is the first 
and '^nly one on the American Niagara Frontier commemo- 
rative of our part in that far-famed battle of Queenston, 
which was fought on yonder heights over ninety years ago. 
In behalf of Mrs. Kate Barton Wheeler, a descendant of 
Maj. Benjamin Barton, U. S. A., in the War of 1812, and 
in her name, I have the honor to offer through you, Mr. 
President, to the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, 
this boulder and tablet, and to ask, at their hands, its accept- 
ance and formal dedication. 



ADDRESS 

By Secretary George D. Emerson, 

Accepting the Tablet for the Landmarks Association. 

Mr. Chairman, Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler, Ladies and 
Gentlemen — The history of the world is largely the his- 
tory of war. It may be that many of the records of other 
phases of human life have been lost or been buried in the 
sands and debris of the ages, but certain it is that the story 
of the nations who have played their part upon the world's 
stage as it has come down to us is largely the story of deeds 
and doings incident to martial periods and military achieve- 
ments. The pomp and circumstance of glorious war, as 
Shakespeare puts it, has apparently fascinated humanity in 
all ages and under all forms of society and government. 

From our youth upwards we have been told that "the 
blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church," and 
pathetic as the thought may be, it nevertheless seems like- 
wise true, that human progress and development have come 
largely through bloodshed and suffering and sorrow. 



83 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

When, however, in the unfolding of events, men have 
taken up arms in a righteous cause or for the defence of 
principles that seemed to them their inalienable birthrights 
or that were inseparably connected with the true and proper 
relationship of men and nations with each other, we honor 
ourselves in honoring their memory and giving to their 
deeds of valor that measure of praise which is their just due. 

Such a war was the War of Independence in whose suf- 
ferings and heroic achievements was born the Republic of 
the West — then weak, feeble, with States scarcely affiliated 
with each other; now the proudest and foremost of all the 
civilized powers of the earth. 

In 1812 came the contest by which the then young nation 
was to confirm its title to a place among existing powers 
and compel decent recognition of its national rights and 
privileges. 

The Niagara Frontier line was a prominent scene of 
action in the War of 1812 and today we commemorate an 
incident at the very threshold of the struggle. Nay ! More 
than that ! We not only commemorate a scene and a place, 
but in so doing, two characters instinctively come to the 
mind also. One who was destined from that stirring Octo- 
ber day to be a great captain in the armies of his country, 
a man of splendid physique, of rare courage and energy, 
magnificent loyalty in a day when it seemed to be the fash- 
ion to be disloyal and who on many fields of battle periled 
his life in the cause of his native land. The other, an 
upright and honorable citizen who discharged with equal 
credit and efficiency military and civic functions and who, 
with home in the midst of these beautiful, romantic and 
picturesque surroundings, in a long and useful life, served 
his day and generation, honored God and loved his fellow- 
men. 

The Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association is indebted 
again to the generosity of its friends for an enduring 
memorial marking one of the historic sites along this his- 
toric highway. It is my privilege in behalf of the Associa- 
tion to accept from you, Mrs. Wheeler, this modest monu- 




FRANK H. SEVERANCE 



Secretary Buffalo Historical Society, and Chairman Committee on Sites 
Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 83 

ment which recalls with its lips of bronze and stone, lives 
of usefulness, honesty, integrity and patriotism. I beg" to 
convey to you the thanks of the Landmarks Association and 
can only hope that such occasions as these may inspire us 
all with higher and nobler aspirations, with lofty ideals of 
citizenship, with a deeper love of country, more exalted and 
disinterested patriotism and above all a profound reverence 
for that Divine Providence which from the beginning has 
seemed to watch over the land we love so well. 



ADDRESS 
By Frank H. Severance 



The Battle of Oueenston. 

It is an old story that I am asked to tell. In the driving 
rain of that October 12, 1812, nearly six thousand troops, 
regulars and militia, lay in camps along the American side 
of the river from Buffalo to Four-Mile Creek, east of Fort 
Niagara. Here at Lewiston was the main body of the 
militia, some two thousand two hundred of them, down by 
the ferry. Smythe, the bombastic, with his regulars was at 
Buffalo. . . . Late that night, as a young lieutenant 
colonel was making camp at Fort Schlosser, an adjutant, 
carrying despatches to Buffalo, saluted him : 

"Have you not heard — received no orders ? Van Rens- 
selaer attacks Queenston in the morning." 

"What, a fight, and I not there !" Instantly he is in sad- 
dle, galloping through mud and rain down that historic old 
highway and down yonder heights, and stands bespattered 
and wet before the general. 

"I am very sorry," says Van Rensselaer ; "but the 
arrangements are all made. I cannot give you a command. 
My nephew is to lead the attack." 



84 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Our eager officer foregoes the privilege of rank. "Let me 
go as a common soldier." And even Gen. Van Rensselaer, 
amiable old gentleman that he was, all innocent of warfare, 
sees that here is the ^uff and fiber that the affair is likely to 
need, and consents ; "and bring down your guns," he adds, 
"and cover the crossing with them." 

Back to Schlosser gallops the youth ; and back once more 
through that mire and pelting storm he comes, with guns 
and men ; and by four o'clock, in the darkness that preceded 
the dreary dawn of the 13th of October, he planted his 
eighteen-pounders on this spot, where we are gathered, and 
soon was pounding the enemy with them, across the river. 

Thus to the service .of his country, in this place which 
we mark today, came ninety-one years ago, that gallant 
youth and good soldier, Winfield Scott. 

Of that day's varying fortunes ; its victory, its follow- 
ing honorable defeat, and its ignoble cowardice, you know 
the story. You know how some three hundred regulars 
under Chrystie — men, by the way, of the Thirteenth Infan- 
try, which we of the Niagara Frontier will always claim as 
"ours" — and as many militia under Col. Van Rensselaer^ 
crossed the river, under the protecting fire of Scott's guns ; 
in all some one thousand one hundred crossed, though scarce 
half engaged in the fight ; you know how their first onslaught 
was victorious, so that they gained the crest of the hill, and 
the redan battery, half way down. And do you remember 
how, in doing this, Van Rensselaer and Chrystie and Wool 
and other officers were disabled, so that the command fell 
on Scott — this same eager youth who the night before, 
denied a share in the attempt commensurate with his rank, 
had begged that he might go along, if only as a common 
soldier. And under his lead there was victory for the hour, 
when even the invincibles of the Forty-ninth turned their 
red backs and ran, and Brock and McDowell fell ; and all 
the Americans needed to make the day theirs was reinforce- 
ments from the idle troops across the river. 

Here lay some two thousand militia — the men who three 
days before had threatened to desert, if they were not led 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 85 

against the enemy! Now that the hour was come, when 
victory, the hves of their comrades, the glory of their flag 
and the honor of their country were all at stake, these men 
like craven curs, hung back ; and though begged, beseeched 
and berated by Gen. Van Rensselaer, by the colonel, his 
nephew, and by Scott himself, who had crossed over for 
reinforcements, they refused to go, for some evil spirit had 
brought it to their minds that they were under no constitu- 
tional obligation to bear arms across the border ; so they 
sulked and disgraced their cause ; while Sheafife, coming 
up from Fort George with fresh troops, and reinforced 
by John Brant and his painted Mohawks, fell upon the 
exhausted Americans, and beat them back to the edge of 
the heights ; so that Scott was put to that ultimate test of 
heroism, the subordination of valor to the dictates of human- 
ity, and surrendered all. Off to Fort George and distant 
Quebec were carried all of that one thousand one hundred 
who had not fallen ; and with them Scott. Though defeated 
theirs was defeat with honor. The ignominy rests on those 
who feared to fight. 

But no fair-minded student of that day's disaster can 
rest the ultimate blame on the frightened militia — the newly- 
herded cattle of warfare, who had not learned to be driven. 
Granting — what some critics do not grant — that the attempt 
on Queenston Heights was strategically wise, there remains 
a folly well-nigh criminal in the government policy of the 
years preceding the war. Both Jefferson and Madison put 
too much reliance on an untrained militia. The last cen- 
tury of history, both in America and Europe, has repeatedly 
shown that newly-recruited militia cannot be depended on 
in attack, especially against veterans in the open field. The 
baptism of fire alone can make the soldier. The men who 
ran like frightened sheep at Bull Run stood like walls at 
Antietam and Gettysburg. 

If Queenston has a lesson for us at this distant day and 
under our changed conditions, it is the same lesson that 
the nation has since learned in graver and bloodier conflicts ; 
the lesson that a miserly economy in preparation for war 



86 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

is sure to be paid for lavishly, in money and in men, at the 
end. To be prepared for war is the way of peace. 

And there is the other lesson, too, that military cam- 
paigns, to be successful, must be led by men who are 
appointed to command, not for sentimental reasons, not as 
political favor, but for proved efficiency — for that and noth- 
ing else. 

I encroach upon your patience. We place this tablet here 
today to help preserve the memory of a hero and his asso- 
ciation with this beautiful spot. It is the function of our 
association to remind the stranger and those of coming 
generations, of those high souls in the invisible host whose 
acts of valor or of devotion have endowed this region with 
the human interest and lent a richer glory to the landscape. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 87 



FORT TOMPKINS 

TABLET UNVEILED SEPTEMBER 26, 1903 



The seventh tablet unveiled by the Niagara Frontier 
Landmarks Association was placed on one of the buildings 
of the International Railway Company on Niagara Street, 
opposite School Street, Buffalo, and marks the site of Fort 
Tompkins, sometimes called Fort Adams, the most import- 
ant fortification in and around Buffalo on the American 
shore during the War of 1812. The tablet, a handsome 
bronze one, was the gift of the railway company, through 
its President, Hon, W. Caryl Ely, a prominent member of 
Buffalo Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution. It 
bore the following inscription: 

The Site of 

FORT TOMPKINS 

Also Known as Fort Adams. 

The Largest and Most 

Important Fortification 

On the American Shore 

In or Near Buflfalo, 

During the War of 1812. 

Erected by the 

International Railway Company 

And Presented to the 

Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 

1903. 

The exercises were held at eleven o'clock a. m., Septem- 
ber 26, 1903. The day was a warm but pleasant one, and a 
large number of people witnessed the ceremonies. In the 
absence of the President, the Vice-President, Mrs. John 



88 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Miller Horton, presided and the following program was 
carried out. 

Invocation Rev. George G. Merrill 

Address Mrs. John Miller Horton 

Presentation of Tablet Hon. W. Caryl Ely 

On behalf of the International Railway Company 

Unveiling of Tablet Miss Marion Ely 

Acceptance of Tablet George D. Emerson 

Secretary Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 

Address Hon. Peter A. Porter 

President Niagara Frontier Historical Society 

Music, "America" Frederick Howard, Esq., Leader 

Benediction Rev. George G. Merrill 



ADDRESS 
By Mrs. John Miller Horton 

Members of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Asso- 
ciation AND Friends, Greeting — In the rapid course of 
events we are again assembled to carry on the patriotic 
work, for which we, the members of this Association, are 
pledged. There is no work, however humble, that does not 
tend to the elevation and beneficence of the world in gen- 
eral, when it enlists the interests of those who bring to it 
that ready sympathy and earnest desire for the betterment 
of mankind that find expression in efforts to install into 
the heart that spirit of patriotism which tends to the estab- 
lishment of wise and good government. 

It is our privilege, as well as our duty, to rescue from 
oblivion these historical spots, fraught with interest to 
every loyal man or woman, and we become the benefactors 
of the generations that follow us, thus emulating the good 
example of our ancestors, by erecting imperishable monu- 
ments and tablets to mark the scenes of their valor and 
patriotism, keeping ever before the world the story of these 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 89 

early struggles for independence of thought and of action 
that made the pioneers of this frontier so strong and force- 
ful in upholding the righteous principles for which they 
fought and died. 

The Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association has already 
placed six bronze tablets, marking historical spots in this 
vicinity. The first tablet, presented by the Niagara Falls 
Historical Society, marks the spot where the Griffon was 
built in 1679 by La Salle; the first vessel, other than a bark 
canoe, to navigate the great waters north. The second tab- 
let marks the spot where stood the only house spared at 
the burning of Buffalo, by the British and Indians, December 
30, 1813. The third tablet is placed on the Niagara Street 
bridge to mark the place where the battle of Black Rock 
was fought, August 3, 18 14. The fourth, the gift to the 
society of the Niagara Gorge Railroad, marks the scene of 
the destruction, September 14, 1763, of a British supply 
train hurled from the bank above into the water below by the 
might of a tremendous foe. The fifth tablet marks the site 
of the first school house erected in the village of Buffalo, 
1807. The sixth, the gift of Mrs. Albert J. Wheeler, marks 
the spot where General Scott placed the battery at the battle 
of Queenston, October 13, 1812. 

The seventh tablet, we are placing here today. It is the 
gift of the International Railway Company and marks the 
site of Fort Tompkins, also known as Fort Adams. As the 
years go by, increasing the prosperity and importance of 
our beautiful city, pilgrims coming to pay their devotions 
at the shrine of our great Niagara will be drawn here, to 
stand with bowed heads on these sacred spots which we, 
by these tablets, dedicate to the memories of our noble ances- 
tors and to the cause of patriotism, and in coming here, well 
may they say with the poet — 

"We traveled in the print of ancient wars, 
Yet all the land was green 
And love, we found, 
And peace — where fire 
And war had been." 



90 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

ADDRESS 
By Hon. W. Caryl Ely. 

Presenting the Tablet for the International 
Railway Company 

We are assembled here this beautiful morning for the 
purpose of dedicating still another of the memorials being 
erected along the Niagara River by your Association. 

The perpetuation, acquisition and suitable marking, main- 
tenance and preservation of places and objects of historic 
interest upon and along the ''Niagara Frontier," so-called, 
in New York State, are the particular objects for which the 
Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association was incorporated. 

Most worthy and laudable are its purposes, and the Asso- 
ciation is to be congratulated upon the progress already 
made in its work. 

In enduring bronze and stone you are marking for the 
information of all who shall come after you, spots rich in 
historic associations and pregnant with interest to all those 
who love their country and its history, and which but for 
these ineffaceable monuments might soon have become lost 
and undiscoverable in the destruction of old things and the 
uprearing of new, incidental to the wonderful commercial 
and industrial development now taking place upon this 
frontier. 

In all times and countries wise and patriotic men have 
endeavored by means of monuments and inscriptions to per- 
petuate the recollection of historic spots and noble deeds ; 
not merely to exploit them, but with the deeper purpose of 
enforcing upon the minds and attention of succeeding gen- 
erations the actions, memories and lessons of the past. 

In all history there is nothing so glorious as the upbuild- 
ing of this nation of free men governing themselves, and, 
therefore, when you designate the places wherein or whereon 
some of the acts in that mighty drama have been played, no 
matter how insignificant they may seem to the heedless and 




HON. W. CARYL ELY 



Former President International Railway Company, the donor 
of the Fort Tompkins Tablet 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 91 

the unthinking, you are performing in times of peace ser- 
vices of great value to your country. 

There can be no better indication afforded of a healthy 
growth of real serious love of country, as distinguished 
from mere spasmodic and hysterical outbursts of indiscrimi- 
nate Fourth of July noise than is shown by the marked and 
rapid growth throughout our land of societies patriotic in 
their purpose and inception, composed of men, women and 
children, representing all ages and all conditions of life. 

The actual work now being carried on by the Niagara 
Frontier Landmarks Association places it well up in the 
front rank of such organizations, and as the landmarks 
erected by it become more numerous, public appreciation of 
and sympathy with its ideas and purposes will become 
aroused in a constantly accelerating degree, so that before 
long the erection of pretentious monuments will be easier 
of accomplishment than were the modest tablets of the 
beginning. 

Nothing can be more truly expressive of the present 
existence of such public appreciation and sympathy than 
the fact that the directors of the International Railway Com- 
pany have caused to be made and erected upon the walls of 
its great electrical power station the beautiful memorial 
about to be unveiled. 

It now becomes my very great pleasure in behalf of the 
railway company to present and formally make over to the 
Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association this bronze tablet, 
and to ask its dedication and acceptance. 



ADDRESS 

By Secretary George D. Emerson 

Accepting the Tablet for the Landmarks Association 

It is my pleasure and privilege today to again represent 
the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association in receiving 
from one of its friends a handsome memorial, which shall, 



92 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

we trust, perpetuate for all time, the identity of an historic 
spot on the Niagara Frontier boundary line. It carries with 
it the memory of a period of strife and bloodshed, but that 
is true likewise of many of the monuments and memorials 
erected by civilized man. To us of the Landmarks Asso- 
ciation it indicates something in addition to this, and that is 
a warm and generous interest in that cause and work which 
we are endeavoring as best we can to forward and perfect. 

To you, Mr. Ely, I believe we are indebted for the origi- 
nal suggestion out of which has grown and developed the 
Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, and this memorial 
which you tender us today on behalf of that great interest 
whose ramifications extend not only over the western part 
of our State, but reach even across the border line, is abun- 
dant evidence of your willingness to attest your faith by 
your works. 

We meet at a time when peace reigns supreme in all our 
borders and I think that we can safely assume that never- 
more in the generations to come will the strife of battle be 
heard along our frontier line. But here our fathers in their 
day and generation faced the stern, hard realities of war 
and 'tis the work of supreme affection to remember their 
deeds. In this spirit we gather today to dedicate this 
memorial of a noted landmark of the War of 1812. 

On behalf and in the name of the Niagara Frontier Land- 
marks Association, I accept this tablet, and beg to extend 
to you and through you, your associates, the hearty and 
sincere thanks of our society for your generous action. 



ADDRESS 
By Hon. Peter A. Porter 

Go back with me in history to the summer of 181 2. 

Buffalo then had one hundred houses and five hundred 
people ; Black Rock had still less. On the river's shore, 
between the two villages, was a sandy beach, back of which 
was the bluff on which we are now standinsf. For a short 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 93 

distance back from its edge, particularly right here, the 
trees had been felled; and a rude road had been made. 
Beyond that all was woods, through which, from near the 
foot of Ferry Street, another road ran to Buffalo. 

That summer war was declared. On our shore here 
all was defenseless, save for one small blockhouse at the 
navy yard on Scajaquada Creek. But quickly, between that 
navy yard and the Terrace, seven batteries were erected and 
fortified. One of them, the largest of all, mounting seven 
guns of various calibre, was on this spot, midway between 
the two villages. 

It was projected as a real fort, but as constructed was 
merely an earthwork battery, its barracks situated across 
the road. It was commonly known as Fort Tompkins, after 
the governor of the State ; but it was also called Fort 
Adams, after the major who built it, and was sometimes 
referred to as Swift's battery, after the captain in command. 
It stood to the west from where we are now, for it was near 
the edge of the bluff, and much of that has since been cut 
away in the construction of the Erie Canal and of the rail- 
road. Its exact site was probably where now is open air, 
some twenty feet above the level of the tracks, directly back 
of these buildings. Its location was, at that time, a point 
of strategic importance, and was chosen with military skill. 
It commanded and protected the 'black rock,' which lay 
at the water's edge, just south of here. 

It was that rock, long since disappeared, which gave 
its name to the nearby village, and which, from revolution- 
ary days, was the principal crossing place on the upper 
river, and was then used by vessels as a landing place. If, 
during the just-proclaimed war, the British should attempt 
to cross the river with hostile intent — as they actually did 
on three occasions — our army engineers did not intend that 
they should use that natural wharf; nor did they mean to 
allow an armed force to land between the two villages and 
thus be able, from a middle base, to simultaneously attack 
each of them, or prevent our troops in either one from has- 
tening to the assistance of those in the other, in case of need. 



94 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

There is little, very little, recorded history of Fort Tomp- 
kins. On several occasions, in the fall of 1812 and in the 
spring of 1813, the British batteries opposite bombarded this 
shore; and our batteries, this one included, always replied. 
Our guns were lighter than those of the enemy, and as 
Black Rock village was the principal target, we suffered the 
most. In one of those bombardments it is related that a 
British cannon ball killed a non-combatant negro ; and that 
another bilged a barrel of fine old Pittsburgh whisky. Of 
such details is history often made. 

But in July, 18 13, Fort Tompkins witnessed a bloody 
battle around its site. On Sunday, July nth, of that year, 
before daylight, Colonel Bishop with some two hundred 
and fifty British soldiers landed below Scajaquada Creek. 
The navy yard was captured, and its block house and bar- 
racks burned. At the "Sailors" battery, at the mouth of the 
creek, the barracks were burnt, the guns spiked. The 
militia, at these points, were outnumbered and driven ofif, 
retreating up the beach. 

Four cannon which were at the navy yard, and what 
munitions and military stores were found, were loaded into 
a schooner and seven scows lying in the creek, and sent to 
Canada. Then the invaders swept southward along the 
bluff, spiking the guns of a battery near the present Breck- 
enridge Street, and of another just south of Ferry Street. 

On they came to Fort Tompkins ; here they burnt the 
barracks and spiked the guns. Then, learning that an 
American force was advancing from Buffalo, they took 
position to give them battle. 

When the British first attacked the navy yard, a mes- 
senger had been hurried to Buffalo for reinforcements ; 
General Porter awakened in his home, near the Auburn 
Avenue of today, had barely time to escape half-clad from 
the advancing foe. He spurred his horse along the back 
road to Buffalo. Then, with the little force that had been 
hastily gathered there — including a small body of his 
friendlv Indians — he hastened to this spot. South of here, 
the militia who had been driven from Black Rock, met and 
joined them. Our force consisted now of some two hun- 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 95 

dred and fifty men, about equal in numbers to that of the 
invaders. 

Our left was composed of the militia from the lower 
village, under Major Adams; the center of Buffalo volun- 
teers, under Captain Bull, and a company of regulars, led 
by Captain Cummings; the right of some thirty Indians, 
with Farmer's Brother at their head, and about the same 
number of men from the plains, with Captain Hull in 
command. 

Realizing the dire necessity of checking the foe right 
here, our troops made a terrific attack, which the redcoats 
bravely met. Porter commenced the assault, leading the 
left against the enemy's flank ; our right attacked their other 
flank ; then the center moved forward from the woods. 

Right around here, for over fifteen minutes the battle 
raged. Then the British broke and fled ; some down the 
beach ; some along the bluff — but all seeking their boats at 
the creek. They left five dead and eight wounded on this 
field. The Americans and Indians pursued them hotly and 
wrought further havoc amongst them as they seized some 
American boats at the lower stone house and started away. 
They admitted the loss of fifteen killed and thirteen wounded 
in the expedition ; but the figures usually accepted were 
much larger. Among the wounded was their leader, Colonel 
Bishop, who was struck after his boat had left the shore, 
and who died a few days later. Our loss was given as 
three killed and five wounded ; but was probably larger. 

So ended the battle of Fort Tompkins, which is often 
referred to as a mere skirmish, but which in reality was 
of great importance, and deserves a far more prominent 
place in history than has ever been accorded to it. Battles 
are important, not merely from the number of men engaged, 
nor from the casualties, but in proportion to the results 
achieved. That was the first battle of the War of 1812, 
fought on the American side of the Niagara ; it was the 
first repulse of a British invasion on this frontier during 
that war. 

Its victory saved Buffalo for the time being; it made 
our troops more alert to future attacks ; it gave them con- 



96 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

fidence, at a time when confidence was badly needed ; it 
cemented the Indians more firmly than ever to our cause — 
and all that occurred at the now nearly forgotten Fort 
Tompkins, which, on that day alone, if on none other, was 
the scene of a substantial victory. 

Whether it was again restored and fortified, I cannot 
say, but it probably was. Anyhow, it was wiped out of 
existence in the burning of Bufifalo six months later. And 
in 1814, our armies transferred the work to the Canadian 
shore, and confined it there ; so it was not rebuilt. 

'i'he battle of Fort Tompkins was in reality the turning 
point in the American cause on the Niagara, during that 
war. Up to the day it was fought, success had lain almost 
entirely with the British, save for the capture of Fort 
George. Had they won this battle and destroyed Bufifalo 
and Black Rock, Fort George would have been speedily 
avenged. True, severe disasters to our side were yet to 
follow, but with these two victories to encourage them, and 
with new leaders to guide them, our troops were again 
inspired to take the aggressive and a year later, to win 
other and greater victories, and to end the war in triumph. 

So we do right in thus perpetuating the memory and 
the bravery of those who here won so important a battle 
and of the old fort itself. And we dedicate this tablet, not 
in a spirit of boastfulness over our neighbors, but in the 
interest of history, and loyalty to our ancestors. From 
this spot, in 18 13, the Americans, with hatred in their 
hearts, sent shot and shell from the cannon's mouth, toward 
those across the river. Today, ninety years later, we, their 
descendants, send to our Canadian brethren not iron hail, 
but the word of greeting; not hostile bullets, but messages 
of peace. Then our message to them was 'Go,' and it was 
enforced with the musket ; now our message to them is 
'Come,' and it is extended in friendship. And our hope 
and prayer is, that henceforth, as of late, amity and good 
will will forever exist between the two countries, whose 
forces met in deadly conflict, around the guns of old Fort 
Tompkins in the War of 1812. 



LANDMARKS' ASSOCIATION. 97 



THE COURT HOUSE TABLET 

UNVEILED SEPTEMBER 9, 1905 



Away back in 1810 the first court house in the City of 
Buffalo was built. It was a wooden structure and occu- 
pied the site of the present Buffalo Public Library at the 
corner of Broadway and Washington streets, although ex- 
tending further into the street than that building. Erie 
County had not been erected at that time, and Niagara 
County embraced not only its present territory, but also all 
of that now contained in Erie County. This court house 
shared the fate of nearly all the buildings in Buffalo when 
it was swept by fire December 30, 1813. A second court 
house was built on the same spot in 1816 and was first opened 
for judicial purposes in the spring of 1817. This was the 
well-known building, with the huge columns in front, in 
which courts were held until March, 1876, at which time 
the present City and County Hall came into service. 

Erie County was erected in 1821 and Buffalo became its 
county seat, as it had been the county seat of Niagara 
County previously. The Public Library, therefore, covers 
the site of the first court house not only of Niagara County 
but also of Erie County. It was to commemorate these 
interesting historical data that a tablet was placed on the 
library building and unveiled September 9, 1905. 

Appropriate exercises were held in the assembly room of 
the Society of Natural Sciences, and the following program 
carried out, Mrs. John Miller Horton, the Vice-President 
of the Society, presiding in the absence of Mr. Trueman G. 
Avery, the President: 

Invocation Rev. Charles H. Smith 

Remarks Mrs. John Miller Horton 



98 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Address Hon. Herbert P. Bissell 

Address Hon. Charles E. Cromley 

Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

Remarks Hon. Albert Haight 

Associate Judge Court of Appeals 

Song — "America" Frederick Howard, Esq., Leader 

Benediction Rollo F. Hurlburt, D. D. 

The day was a pleasant one and a large concourse of 
people were present at the exercises. 

During the long history of these two buildings many of 
the court sessions had been presided over by some of the 
most distinguished members of the bar of Western New 
York. The list of county judges, commencing with Niagara 
County and continuing with Erie County, is as follows : 

Augustus Porter, James Stryker, 

Samuel Tupper, N. K. Hall, 

William Hotchkiss, Fred P. Stevens, 

Samuel Wilkeson, Jesse Walker, 

Ebenezer Walden, R. L. Burrows, 

Thomas C. Love, James Sheldon, 

Philander Bennett, Stephen Lockwood, 
Albert Haight. 

The Superior Court of Buffalo, created in 1854 and con- 
solidated with the Supreme Court by the constitution of 
1894, while its sessions were held in the newer building, 
had among its justices such men as George W. Clinton, 
Isaac A. Verplanck, Joseph G. Masten, James M. Hum- 
phrey, James Sheldon and James M. Smith. Many of the 
best-known Justices of the Supreme Court for the Eighth 
District also held court in this building, among whom might 
be named such men as Justices Daniels, Barker, Grover, 
Lament and Marvin. 

The exercises of the day called forth many personal 
reminiscences of these and other distinguished gentlemen 
who had been prominent, either as members of the bench 
or bar, in the earlier days of frontier jurisprudence. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 99 

At the conclusion of the exercises in the building, an 
adjournment was had to the walk where the tablet was 
unveiled by Mrs. George D. Emerson, wife of the Secretary 
of the Landmarks Association. 

The tabletbore the following inscription : 

The Site of the 

First Court Houses of Niagara 

and Erie Counties. 



First Court House Built 1810 
Destroyed at the Burning of Buffalo 

By the British — December 30, 1813. 

Second Court House Built 1816-1817. 

Abandoned March 11, 1876. 



Niagara Ccrunty Formed from 

Genesee County, March 11, 1808, 

And Erie County from Niagara County 

April 2, 1821 — Buffalo Being the First 

Seat of Niagara County and Erie County. 



Erected by the 

Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 

1905. 



ADDRESS 
By Hon. Herbert P. Bissell 

Today we celebrate an event of supreme importance to 
the well-being and progress of this community. The Niag- 
ara Frontier Landmarks Association has done well to place 
memorials upon the historic sites abounding on the Niagara 
Frontier. 

It began its work three years ago by dedicating at La 
Salle a tablet commemorative, not only of the life-work of 
the brave and great explorer, the Chevalier de La Salle, 
but also of the first act in the marvelous commercial devel- 
opment of the Great West — the launching in 1679 of the 



100 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

"Griffon" — the first vessel to plough the unknown waves 
of our vast inland seas, where sail had never been seen be- 
fore. Since then it has erected monuments to mark the 
location of the first schoolhouse erected in Buffalo in 1807 ; 
the single dwelling left standing after the burning of Buf- 
falo by the British in the War of 1812; the battlefield of 
Black Rock, and the site of Fort Tompkins, as well as the 
place where occurred, in 1763, the Devil's Hole massacre, 
on the lower Niagara River. 

Today it crowns this excellent work by unveiling a tablet 
commemorating the first court houses of Erie and Niagara 
counties, and it is difficult to realize that a full century has 
not yet elapsed since the establishment of the first tribunals 
of justice in this splendid domain of Western New York. 

We are not here to review the distinguished achievements 
of an individual, nor to sing of romantic deeds of bravery in 
exploration or in battle ; but to commemorate the institution 
in a wilderness of a system of judicature for the adjust- 
ment of human differences, where, under the dominion of 
the terrible Iroquois, had formerly passed unchallenged the 
doctrine that "might makes right." 

We celebrate the inauguration here of a temple of justice, 
and in the words of Daniel Webster, "Justice is the great 
interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds 
civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever 
her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there 
is a foundation for social security, general happiness and 
the improvement and progress of our race." 

The early savage protected his life and property only by 
his individual vigilance, and the strength of his own right 
arm, and it was not until the dawn of civilization gradually 
broke upon his darkened mind that the advantages of asso- 
ciation were revealed to him. With association came law 
and order; with law and order came right and justice; and 
with right and justice came peace and prosperity. 

We commemorate today the beginning of law and order, 
right and justice, peace and prosperity on the Niagara 
Frontier. And it is peculiarly interesting and gratifying to 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 101 

have this occasion graced by the presence of one of our most 
distinguished fellow citizens, who represents in his life- 
work the best success that can be achieved in the adminis- 
tration of justice. 

Not only does Judge Albert Haight bind the past to the 
present as the only member of the judiciary still upon the 
bench, who held court in the building whose site we mark by 
this tablet, but he also exemplifies in his career what is the 
best and most admirable in our American life. 

To progress by steady steps from a judge of the lowest 
court of record to membership in the highest and noblest 
judicial body in the Empire State, illustrates the advance- 
ment possible to such able and upright men along the path- 
way of American opportunity. 

It is a pleasure to recall the names of other judges who 
administered justice in the old court house prior to its aban- 
donment in 1876, and during the almost sixty years of its 
existence upon this spot. That must, indeed, be a roll of 
honor which includes the names of Martin Grover, Noah 
Davis, John L. Talcott, Charles Daniels, Richard P. Marvin, 
George Barker, Isaac A. Verplanck, Joseph G. Masten and 
George W. Clinton. 

You have already been informed in eloquent phrase of 
the historical facts appropriately recalled on this occasion, 
and it therefore remains for me to speak further only of 
some of the great advocates who practiced before the tri- 
bunals that sat in this first court house. 

We are at once reminded of the words uttered by a great 
Englishman : 

"The bar is inseparable from our national life, from the 
security of our national institutions — the calling upon which 
in no small degree depend the rights and liberties of both 
individuals and nations. Is it not itself high privilege and 
duty to supply the just weights and balances of the scale 
of justice, and stand forward for the weak and helpless, 
upon great occasions, when public liberties are in ques- 
tion?" 

These words are suggestive, indeed, of the measureless 
responsibilities resting upon the American lawyer, and they 



102 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

have a special application today when we remember that 
two of the great advocates who practiced their profession 
here afterwards achieved the exalted position of President 
of the United States — Millard Fillmore and Grover Cleve- 
land. And these names naturally recall the names of Nathan 
K. Hall, Solomon G. Haven and Wilson S. Bissell, who 
were associated with them. 

The bar of Erie County still holds a high place in the 
State of New York, but never did it rejoice in the possession 
of greater names and better reputations than when prac- 
ticed before the tribunals that sat in this old court house, 
and such men as Albert P. Laning, George R. Babcock, John 
Ganson, E. Carlton Sprague, Albert H. Tracy, James O. 
Putnam, Oscar Folsom, Henry W. Rogers, Lyman K. Bass, 
Dennis Bowen, Loran L. Lewis, Benjamin H. Austin, John 
C. Strong, William F. Miller, James M. Willett, William H. 
Gurney, William C. Bryant, James M. Humphrey, and many 
others equally distinguished. 

When we lawyers of today contemplate the brilliant tal- 
ents, noble characters and honorable accomplishments of the 
brethren who once represented the judiciary and the bar in 
this place, we cannot fail to take pride in the noble profes- 
sion to which we belong. We must appreciate that it is the 
duty of the lawyer to maintain the honor of the profession, 
to protect and defend our system of jurisprudence from 
injurious assaults and unwise innovations, and to maintain 
constitutional liberty. 

When we review the history of the first temple of justice 
erected in a wilderness where, but a short time before, the 
hostile savage had held absolute sway, we realize that law is 
a necessary element of civilization and the handmaid of 
progress. 

The legal profession is surely an important factor in all 
civilized governments, and the lawyer has always been fore- 
most in every struggle for civil and religious liberty, as 
well as in efforts for moral and material advancement. 

From the time when, on the field of Runnymede, a tyran- 
nical King was forced to affix his seal to Magna Charta, 




THE COURT HOUSE TABLET, LIBRARY BUILDING, CLINTON AND WASHINGTON 
STREETS, BUFFALO, N. Y. 

Unveiled Septcmlier 7, 1905, by Mrs. George D. Emerson 
[From Illustrated Sunday Express. Copyrighted, 1905, by The J. N. Matthews Co. J 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 103 

until the days preceding the American Revolution, when 
the lawyers taught the people of America their duty, and, 
having shown them the way to liberty, led them through the 
struggle which culminated in the establishment of a gov- 
ernment, the cornerstone of which is personal and religious 
freedom, the lawyer has ever been a potential factor. And 
with a judiciary fearless and incorruptible, free from influ- 
ences that prevent it from seeing and maintaining the right ; 
free from the influences of wealth and political ambition, 
the liberties of a people can be maintained, their happiness 
secured, and their rights and privileges enjoyed, even 
though legislation may be unwise and rulers may be despotic. 



ADDRESS 

By Hon. Charles E. Cromley 
Representing the Niagara County Bar 

Life's pathway is marked by countless milestones, and 
whether it be of the individual, the State, or the Nation, 
monuments are reared to mark their progress and their 
achievements ; some are invisible, intangible, the fruition 
of a great work, or a noble, philanthropic life; others in 
pillars of marble, or tablets of bronze. 

From the dawn of creation when chaos ceased and order 
began its reign, events and happenings, great deeds, remark- 
able achievements and noteworthy occurrences have been 
preserved in tradition and in written history, and in the 
hearts of the people great acts, heroic endeavor and unselfish 
devotion will live forever, imperishable monuments. The 
history of our country and its remarkable progress, its ad- 
vancement and prosperity, is at all times interesting, and a 
source of national pride, but quite as attractive and interest- 
ing to us is the history of our own State, and more particu- 
larly that immediate part wherein our tents are pitched, and 
whose surroundings constitute a portion of our own pre- 
serve, our own home. 



104 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

This locality, this borderland washed by the waters of 
the historic Niagara, the dividing line twixt that country 
over whose domain floats the cross of St. George, and our 
own dear, native land, is rich in historic remembrance and 
historic lore, and within cannon-shot of this spot events 
have occurred in the by-gone days which form a part in the 
glory of our country and its wondrous history. 

The onward march of progress, our country's develop- 
ment and the changes wrought by time, are marked here 
and there by the hand of man, and the "markers" placed and 
established by loving hearts, thoughtful minds, willing 
hands and patriotic impulses, are monuments as well to those 
who placed them. 

In the stress and strife of our modern life when the 
struggle and race for wealth is apparently all-absorbing, it 
is, inded, inspiring and gratifying to observe the unselfish 
devotion and thoughtfulness of that small band of women, 
together with a few of the sterner sex, who seek to per- 
petuate in granite boulders and tablets of bronze, historic 
places made so by the devotion and patriotism of our fore- 
fathers, and rendered dear to the American heart by asso- 
ciation, tradition and history. 

We love to dwell upon thoughts and themes of national 
pride, and the attractiveness of our immediate and home 
surroundings is enhanced and glorified by the presence of 
some spot, place or object, made prominent by association 
with, or a part of some important event in national, state 
or local history. To the patriotism, devotion and national 
pride of a little band of women are we indebted for the 
preservation and perpetuation of historic scenes and places, 
and their rare thoughtfulness and womanly tenderness in 
marking the graves of the patriots of '76, will forever en- 
shrine their organization in the hearts of all true Americans. 

And to the civic pride, love of home and its surroundings, 
of these same women, aided and encouraged by historical 
societies, are we indebted for the perpetuation and preser- 
vation of landmarks dear to the civic heart, and the gather- 
ing here today but serves to demonstrate the truth of the 
assertion. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 105 

In 1808, Genesee County, lying to the east, embraced all 
Western New York; later, Erie and Niagara were carved 
from Genesee, and your present Queen City of the Lakes 
was the county seat of the greater Niagara County. The 
first court house was erected here in 1810, and was destroyed 
at the burning of Buffalo three years later. The second 
court house was erected here in 1816, and continued as the 
county seat of greater Niagara County until 1821, at which 
time the population of the southern part of the county 
having increased so rapidly a new division seemed desirable, 
and from Niagara County was set off the present County 
of Erie. 

Among the six or eight counties that were carved out of 
old Genesee, Niagara was the only one which ever grew 
great enough to have a child of its own. Niagara is proud 
of her descent from Genesee, and inclined to be boastful 
of her parentage of Erie ; she is certainly proud of her child. 

Niagara, like Erie, has brought forth and reared men 
whose names adorn the legal and judiciary history of our 
locality, and some of whom achieved state, and even national 
reputation. 

Of the early Niagara County bar. Bates Cook of Lewis- 
ton, once member of Congress, afterward comptroller of 
our State, and a trusted friend and confidante of Thurlow 
Weed, was a leader. 

Augustus Porter, the first county judge of Old Niagara, 
then embracing the present County of Erie, shed lustre 
upon the judiciary of his day by his poise, acumen, refine- 
ment and intellectuality. 

In 1821 came the division of Old Niagara, and at Lock- 
port was established the county seat of the new and present 
Niagara, where it has since continued and remained. The 
establishment of the county seat attracted to Lockpprt some 
of the best minds of the new Niagara County bar, and we 
of the younger generation have come to believe that it repre- 
sented intellect, honor, professional courtesy, and an esprit 
du corps which was manifest in lofty ideals and clean prac- 
tices. 



106 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

The long line of members of the county judiciary of the 
new and present County of Niagara, dating from the divi- 
sion of the first and Old Niagara in 182 1, were men of high 
character and large mental calibre, and while we of today 
are prone to consider the office as a subordinate one, and 
fail to award it the high consideration it should command, 
it is the result more of the strenuous times, the increase in 
members of our Supreme Court justices, and its limited 
jurisdiction, rather than any decline or lowering of the 
standard of excellence which our county judiciary has al- 
ways maintained. 

The tablet unveiled here today commemorates the erec- 
tion of two court houses upon this site, and to the local pride 
and rare thoughtfulness of the Landmarks Association are 
we indebted for the perpetuation of this spot, and in a man- 
ner so marked that "he who runs may read." 

Time will continue to run its course, men will come and 
go, these stately edifices will crumble and decay, but history 
will survive, and generations yet unborn will come to know 
this spot, and the significance of what we do here today. 

Law controls the universe, both heaven and earth obey 
it; the court house, that temple of justice and the bulwark 
of our liberty, represents in all free countries the palladium 
of the people's rights. 

The spot and place which you commemorate today will 
by your act be perpetuated and continued and kept bright 
in the hearts of your people and ours. The two great coun- 
ties whose seat of justice first covered this spot, are today 
the cynosure of all eyes, and attracting the attention of the 
world. Their development, their resources, the commerce 
of the great lakes, their commercial and manufacturing 
industries, the salubrity of climate, and progressiveness of 
their people, render this section of ours delightful as a 
dwelling place, and commercially attractive. 

The labor of love, inspired by civic pride and historic 
associations, indulged in by the Landmarks Association, 
and their allies, the ladies' patriotic organizations, is of last- 
ing benefit and inculcates in the minds of the younger and 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 107 

coming generation that spirit of local fealty, and local pride, 
which is manifest here today. 

Niagara joins with Erie in this commemoration, and may 
the tablet unveiled here today not only perpetuate the events 
recorded upon its brazen surface, but may it signify and 
perpetuate the bond of amity and good-will existing between 
the two counties, which were so long united, but afterwards 
divided, but whose people are still one in heart, in sentiment, 
in interest and goodfellowship. 



ADDRESS 

By Hon. Albert Haight 

Associate Judge, Court of Appeals 

I can at this time but acknowledge the many kind words 
spoken personally. I must apologize that I have not pre- 
pared some remarks suitable for this occasion, and I can 
only, therefore, indulge in a few reflections. 

Was it yesterday, or the day before? Possibly it was 
sometime before that I was chosen county judge of this 
county. I well recall the campaign preceding my election. 
The press then commented on my youth, and said it seemed 
like robbing the cradle to select me for a county judge. I 
feel as young today, although I may be more deliberate in 
my movements, and I now wait for an elevator instead of 
running up the stairs from the bottom to the top floor of a 
building. The Secretary of State has recorded thirty-three 
years of service by me since my first election. 

I can recall to mind just how the old court house looked, 
especially the court room heating apparatus, which con- 
sisted of a big box stove into which could be placed four- 
foot logs to be burned. My first entrance into the court 
room in my judicial capacity as county judge produced 
quite a sensation for me. In those days it was the custom 
to arm the sheriffs with six-foot poles with which to com- 



108 • NIAGARA FRONTIER 

mand order when necessary. Grover Cleveland was the 
sheriff. He had summoned all the deputies from all over 
the county for the occasion, and he had them lined up on 
both sides of the doorway, with their staffs in hand. When 
I undertook to enter there was such a loud and vigorous 
thumping of their staffs on the floor, heralding my approach, 
that it so embarrassed the new judge that he ne^er really 
knew how he reached his seat at the bench. 

Since then I have presided at many interesting and im- 
portant trials. And since that time it has been my fortune 
to preside in many counties in the state and in very many 
court houses, but the fondest recollections of my judicial 
career relate back to the scenes of that little court room in 
that little old court house, which stood on this site, and the 
memory of which we are here to commemorate. 




PHILIP SHERWOOD SMITH 

Treasurer Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 109 

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES 

1900-01-02 



TRUEMAN G. AVERY Chairman 

Mrs. JOHN MILLER HORTON Vice-Chairman 

GEORGE D. EMERSON Secretary 

PHILIP S. SMITH Treasurer 



COMMITTEE ON SITES. 

Frank H. Severance, Chairman ; 
Philip S. Smith, Henry R. Howland, 

Mrs. Mary N. Thompson, Mrs. Oscar L. Harries, 

Prof. Horace Briggs, Hon. Peter A. Porter, 

J. BOARDMAN ScOVELL, A. W. HoFFMAN. 



FINANCE COMMITTEE. 

George A. Stringer, Chairman; 
W. Caryl Ely, Nathaniel Rochester, 

Mrs. John Miller Horton, Mrs. Edward C. Bull, 

James Sweeney, Hon. Thomas V. Welch, 

Dr. George S. Hobbie. 



COMMITTEE ON TABLETS. 

George D. Emerson, Chairman ; 
Burt C. Hayes, Prof. T. B. Lovell, 

Hon. Herbert P. Bissell, Nathaniel Rochester, 

Philip S. Smith, J. C. Hooker, 

Miss Ada M. Kenyon. 



no 



NIAGARA FRONTIER 



REPRESENTATIVES 



1900-01-02 



Buffalo Chapter, 
Sons of the 
American Revolution-' 

Hon. W. Caryl Ely, 
Clarence M. Bushnell, 
Hon. Herbert P. Bissell, 
Prof. Horace Briggs, 
Trueman G. Avery, 

Buffalo Association, 
Sons of the Revolution: 

George W. Comstock, 
William Y. Warren, 
Henry R. Howland, 
Col. Albert J. Meyer, 
Nathaniel Rochester. 

Buffalo Historical Society: 
Frank H. Severance, 
James Sweeney, 
Dr. a. L. Benedict, 
George D. Emerson, 
Capt. Louis L. Babcock, 
Andrew Langdon. 

Society of the War of 1812: 
Dr. Joseph T. Cook, 
Sheldon T. Viele, 
Alexander W. Hoffman. 



Buffalo Chapter, 
Daughters of the 
American Revolution: 

Mrs. C. C. Wyckoff, 
Mrs. Frank W. Abbott, 
Miss Ada M. Kjenyon, 
Mrs. R. J. Sherman, 
Mrs. John Miller Horton 
Mrs. Mary N. Thompson. 



Children of the 
American Revolution: 

Mrs. Oscar L. Harries, 
Miss Edna E. Choate, 
Burt C. Hayes, 
Mrs. Edward C. Bull, 
Miss Christina M. Nuno, 
Jerome Fargo. 

Men's Club 
of Lezviston: 

Dr. George S. Hobbie, 
J. Boardman Scovell, 
Rev. J. W. Ross, 
Dr. T. a. Kerr, 
WiLLARD Hopkins, 
J. C. Hooker. 



Buffalo Association, 
Society of Colonial Wars: 

John M. Provoost, 
John W. Crafts, 
Fisher C. Atherton, 
Philip S. Smith, 
Drake Whitney^ 
George A. Stringer. 



Niagara Frontier 
Historical Society: 

Hon. Peter A. Porter, 
Hon. George W. Wright, 
Hon. Thomas V. Welch, 
William A. Philpott, Jr., 
Edward T. Williams, 
Prof. T. B. Lovell. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. HI 

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES 

1902-03-04 



TRUEMAN G. AVERY Chairman 

Mrs. JOHN MILLER HORTON Vice-Chairman 

GEORGE D. EMERSON Secretary 

PHILIP S. SMITH Treasurer 



COMMITTEE ON SITES. 

Frank H. Severance^ Chairman; 
Philip S. Smith, Henry R. Howland, 

Mrs. Mary N. Thompson,* Mrs. Oscar L. Harries, 

Prof. Horace Briggs, Hon. Peter A. Porter, 

J. Boardman Scovell, a. W. Hoffman, 

Mrs. Samuel S. SPAULDiNG.f 



FINANCE COMMITTEE. 

George A. Stringer, Chairman; 
W. Caryl Ely, Nathaniel Rochester, 

Mrs. John Miller Horton, Mrs. Edward C. Bull, 

James Sweeney, Hon. Thomas V. Welch, 

Dr. Joseph T. Cook, Dr. George S. Hobbie. 



COMMITTEE ON TABLETS. 

George D. Emerson, Chairman ; 
Burt C. Hayes, Prof. T. B. Lovell, 

Hon. Herbert P. Bissell, Nathaniel Rochester, 

Philip S. Smith, J. C. Hooker, 

Sheldon T. Viele, Miss Ada M. Kenyon. 



* Died November 24, 1902. 

t Appointed vice, Mrs. Thompson, deceased. 



112 



NIAGARA FRONTIER 



REPRESENTATIVES 

1902-03-04 



Buffalo Chapter, 
Sons of the 
American Revolution: 

Hon. W. Caryl Ely, 
Clarence M. Bushnell, 
Hon. Herbert P. Bissell, 
Prof. Horace Briggs, 
Trueman G. Avery. 
O. P. Letchworth, 
Frank B. Steele, 
Henry J. Pierce. 

Buffalo Association, 
Sons of the Revolution: 

George W. Com stock, 
William Y. Warren, 
Henry R. Howland, 
Col. Albert J. Meyer, 
Nathaniel Rochester, 
Dr. G. Hunter Bartlett, 
Hon. T. Guilford Smith, 
Charles B. Wheeler. 

Buffalo Historical Society: 
Frank H. Severance, 
James Sweeney, 
Dr. a. L. Benedict, 
Capt. Louis L. Babcock, 
Andrew Langdon, 
G. Barrett Rich, 
John M. Provoost, 
Fisher C. Atherton. 

Society of the War of 1812: 
Dr. Joseph T. Cook, 
Sheldon T. Viele, 
Alexander W. Hoffman. 



Buffalo Association, 
Society of Colonial Wars: 

John W. Crafts, 
Philip S. Smith, 
Drake Whitney, 
George A. Stringer, 
Dr. Matthew D. Mann, 
Charles H. Williams, 
George D. Emerson. 



Buffalo Chapter, 
Daughters of the 
American Revolution: 

Mrs. C. C. Wyckoff, 
Mbs. Frank W. Abbott,* 
Miss Ada M. Kenyon, 
Mrs. R. J. Sherman, 
Mrs. John Miller Horton, 
Mrs. Mary N. Thompson,! 
Mrs. Samuel S. Spaulding 
Mrs. Trueman G. Avery, 
Mrs. Richard W. Goode, 
Mrs. W. Caryl Ely. 



Children of the 
American Revolution: 

Mrs. Oscar L. Harries, 
Miss Edna E. Choate, 
Burt C. Hayes, 
Mrs. Edward C. Bull, 
Miss Christine M. Nuno, 
Jerome Fargo. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 



113 



REPRESENTATIVES, 1902-03-04.— Continued 



Men's Club 
of Levuiston: 

Dr. George S. Hobbie, 
j. boardman scovell, 
Rev. J. W. Ross, 
Dr. T. a. Kerr, 
WiLLARD Hopkins, 
J. C. Hooker, 
Edward D. Strickland, 
Dr. C. a. Shepard. 



* Resigned November 13, 1903. 
t Died November 24, 1902. 
X Died October 20, 1903- 



Niagara Frontier 
Historical Society: 

Hon. Peter A. Porter, 
Hon. George W. Wright, 
Hon. Thomas V. Welch,^ 
William A. Philpott, Jr., 
Edward T. Williams, 
Prof. T. B. Lovell, 
E. M. Clark, 
Dr. J. E. Gates. 



OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS 

1902-03-04 



TRUEMAN G. AVERY Chairman 

Mrs. JOHN MILLER HORTON ...... Vice-Chairman 

GEORGE D. EMERSON Secretary 

PHILIP S. SMITH Treasurer 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 



Horace Briggs, 
Trueman G. Avery, 
Frank H. Severance, 
Henry R. Howland, 
Peter A. Porter, 
George A. Stringer, 
George D. Emerson, 



Philip S. Smith, 
Sheldon T. Viele, 
Nathaniel Rochester, 
Katharine Pratt Horton, 
Jeanie L. Harries, 
John C. Hooker, 
Mary N. Thompson,* 
W. Caryl Ely.! 



* Died November 24, 1902. 

t Elected vice Mrs. Mary N. Thompson, deceased. 



114 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES 

1904-05 



TRUEMAN G. AVERY President 

Mrs. JOHN MILLER HORTON Vice-President 

GEORGE D. EMERSON Secretary 

PHILIP S. SMITH Treasurer 



COMMITTEE ON SITES. 

Frank H. Severance, Chairman; 
Philip S. Smith, Prof. Horace Briggs, 

Mrs. John S. Chittenden, J. Boardman Scovell, 

Mrs. Samuel S. Spaulding, Henry R. Howland, 

Charles H. Wh^liams, Mrs. Oscar L. Harries, 

Mrs. Arthur W. Austin, Hon. Peter A. Porter, 

A. W. Hoffman. 



FINANCE COMMITTEE. 

George A. Stringer, Chairman; 

Hon. W. Caryl Ely, Hon. George W. Wright, 

Mrs. John Miller Horton, Dr. Joseph T. Cook, 

James Sweeney, Charles R. Wilson, 

Nathaniel Rochester, Mrs. A. J. Wheeler, 

Mrs. Edward C. Bull, Henry A. Richmond, 
Dr. George S. Hobbie. 



COMMITTEE ON TABLETS. 

George D. Emerson, Chairman; 

Burt C. Hayes, John M. Provoost, 

Hon. Herbert P. Bissell, Samuel S. Spaulding, 

Prof. T. B. Lovell, Hon. T. Guilford Smith, 

J. C. Hooker, Mrs. George Wadsworth, 

Sheldon T. Viele, Mrs. Robert Fulton, 

Miss Ada M. Kenyon. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 

REPRESENTATIVES 

1904-05 



115 



Buffalo Chapter 
Sons of the 
American Revolution: 

Trueman G. Avery, 
Hon. Herbert P. Bissell, 
Prof. Horace Briggs, 
Clarence M. Bushnell, 
Hon. W. Caryl Ely, 
Ogden p. Letchworth, 
Henry J. Pierce, 
Frank B. Steele, 

Buffalo Chapter 

Sons of the Revolution-' 

Dr. G. Hunter Bartlett, 
George W. Com stock, 
Henry R. Howland, 
Col. Albert J. Myer, 
Nathaniel Rochester, 
Hon. T. Guilford Smith, 
William Y. Warren, 
Charles B. Wheeler. 

Buffalo Historical Society: 
Fisher C. Atherton, 
Dr. a. L. Benedict, 
Major Louis L. Babcock, 
Andrew Langdon, 
John M. Provoost, 
Gen. G. Barrett Rich, 
Frank H. Severance, 
James Sweeney. 

Society of the War of 1812: 
Dr. Joseph T. Cook, 
Alexander W. Hoffman, 
Sheldon T. Viele. 



Buffalo Association 
Society of Colonial Wars: 

John W. Crafts, 
George D. Emerson, 
Dr. Matthew D. Mann, 
George A. Stringer, 
Philip S. Smith, 
Drake Whitney, 
Walter Devereux. 

Men's Club 
of Lewiston: 

Dr. George S. Hobbie, 
WiLLARD Hopkins, 
John C. Hooker, 
Dr. T. a. Kerr, 
Rev. J. W. Ross, 
Dr. C. a. Shepard, 
J. Boardman Scovell, 
Edward D. Strickland. 

Buffalo Chapter 
Daughters of the 
American Revolution: 

Mrs. John Miller Horton, 
Mrs. Trueman G. Avery, 
Mrs. W. Caryl Ely, 
Mrs. Richard W. Goode, 
Miss Ada M. Kenyon, 
Mrs. R. J. Sherman, 
Mrs. Samuel S. Spaulding, 
Mrs. C. C. Wyckoff. 

Order of the Cincinnati: 
Charles R. Wilson, 
Charles H. Williams, 
Samuel S. Spaulding. 



116 



NIAGARA FRONTIER 



REPRESENTATIVES, 1904-05— Co?2ftn7(ed 



Daughters of the 
War of 1812: 

Mrs. a. J. Wheeler, 
Mrs. Robert Fulton, 
Mrs. John S. Chittenden, 
Miss Elizabeth C. Trott, 
Mrs. William Y. Warren. 

Niagara Frontier 
Historical Society: 

E. M. Clark,* 
Dr. J. E. Gates, 
Prof. Thomas B. Lovell, 
Hon. Peter A. Porter, 
William A. Philpott, Jr., 
Hon. George W. Wright, 
Edward T. Williams. 
R. A. Taylor, 
Walter McCullough, 



Children of the 
American Revolution: 

Mrs. Edward C. Bull, 

Miss Edna E. Choate, 

Jerome Fargo, 

Mrs. Oscar L. Harries, 

Burt C. Hayes, 

Miss Christine M. Nuno. 



Society of the 
Mayflower Descendants-' 

Mrs. J. E. Allard, 
Mrs. Arthur W. Austin, 
Hon. Henry A. Richmond, 
Mrs. George Wadsworth, 
Theodore B. Sheldon. 



OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS 

1904-05 

TRUEMAN G. AVERY President 

Mrs. JOHN MILLER HORTON Vice-President 

GEORGE D. EMERSON Secretary 

PHILIP S. SMITH Treasurer 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 



Horace Briggs, 
Trueman G. Avery, 
Frank H. Severance, 
Henry R. Howland, 
Peter A. Porter, 
George A. Stringer, 
George D. Emerson, 



Philip S. Smith, 
Sheldon T. Viele, 
Nathaniel Rochester, 
Katharine Pratt Horton, 
Jeanie L. Harries, 
John C. Hooker, 
W. Caryl Ely. 



* Deceased. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 117 

TREASURER'S REPORTS 

1902-03-04-05 

Mr. Philip S. Smith, Treasurer of the Association, pre- 
sented the following reports: 

November 13, 1902. 
To the Members of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Asso- 
ciation: 

RECEIPTS. 

Dec. 19, 1901— Buffalo Chapter, Daughters of the Ameri- 
can Revolution $ 50-00 

Feb. I, 1902— Buffalo Chapter, Sons of the American 

Revolution 100.00 

May 22, 1902— Trueman G. Avery 5-00 

May 22, 1902— Peter A. Porter S-OO 

May 22, 1902— Philip S. Smith 5-00 

May 24, 1902— -Sale of excursion tickets for La Salle ex- 
cursion train 10.00 

Aug. 5, 1902— Buffalo Chapter, Children of the American 

Revolution 28.00 

Aug. 5, 1902— Buffalo Historical Society 40.00 

Nov. II, 1902— Buffalo Association, Sons of the Revolution 150.00 

Total $ 39300 

DISBURSEMENTS. 

May 22, 1902— George D. Emerson, Secretary, special train 

Buffalo to La Salle $ 50.00 

Aug. 15, 1902— C. E. Brinkworth, account tablets 100.00 

Aug. 21, 1902 — Lila M. Fox, stenographic work 10.55 

Nov. 12, 1902— C. E. Brinkworth, account tablets 75-50 

Nov. 12, 1902— Lila M. Fox, stenographic work 18.78 

Nov. 12, 1902 — Matthews-Northrup Co., printing 5-00 

Total - $ 259-83 

Receipts $ 393-00 

Disbursements 259.83 

Balance on hand $ i33-i7 

(Signed) PHILIP S. SMITH, 

Treasurer Niagara Frontier Landmarks Ass'n. 



118 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

December 4, 1903. 
I have the honor to submit herewith my report as Treas- 
urer of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association for 
the past year. I have received the following- cash items : 

Mar. 12, 1903 — Donation from Philip S. Smith $ 12.10 

Apr. II, 1903 — Donation from Buffalo Historical Society. .. 5.00 

Aug. 3, 1903 — Donation from George D. Emerson 12.00 

Donation from Philip S. Smith 2.35 

Dec. 3, 1903 — Contribution from Buffalo Chapter Society 

of Colonial Wars 41.00 

At the date of my last report, November 13, 1902, there 
was a balance on hand of $133.17; adding the balance and 
above cash items, we have a total of $205.62. 

The following disbursements have been made: 

Mar. 12, 1903 — Paid Lila M. Fox for stenographic work. .$ 6.85 
Mar. 12, 1903 — Paid White-Evans-Penfold Co. for station- 
ery 5.25 

July 17, 1903 — Paid Peter Paul Co. for programs 4.50 

Aug. 3, 1903— Paid N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. for special 

train to Lewiston, June 20th 12.00 

Aug. 3, 1903 — Paid American Express Co. charges on two 

tablets 2.35 

Dec. 3, 1903 — Paid Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. for tablet 

to mark the Court House site 125.00 

Dec. 3, 1903 — Paid Peter Paul Co. for programs 4.25 

Dec. 3, 1903 — Paid C. E. Brinkworth for stationery, photo- 
graphs, etc., in connection with tablet 

unveilings 19-25 

Dec. 3, 1903 — Paid George D. Emerson for incidental ex- 
penses, postage, etc., defrayed by him... 10.00 

Total $ 189.45 

Subtracting the total disbursements from the total receipts, 
I have a balance left in my hands, as Treasurer, to the credit 
of the Association, of $16.17, which sum is now on deposit 
in the Manufacturers & Traders Bank, where the funds of 
the Association have been kept. 

As far as I know the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Asso- 
ciation has no debts outstanding and no unpaid bills are in 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 119 

my hands. Besides the money contributions, there have 
been two contributions of tablets for which due credit should 
be given. The tablet dedicated at Lewiston, June 20, 1903, 
on the grounds of the Barton homestead, was a gift from 
Mrs. Albert J. Wheeler of this city, and it marks the site 
of the battery at the battle of Queenston Heights. The tab- 
let dedicated in this city on the 26th of September last, at 
the trolley railway power house on Niagara Street, was the 
gift of the International Railway Company, and it marks the 
site of Fort Tompkins. 

The patriotism, generosity and interest shown by Mrs. 
Wheeler and the railway corporation are to be highly com- 
mended, and they should have, and do have, the earnest and 
sincere thanks of the Association, of its members, and 
undoubtedly of the community at large also, for what they 
have done. It remains to say that the society is greatly in 
need of, and would be greatly obliged for, donations of cash 
or tablets from individuals. 

It is greatly to be desired that the Buffalo chapters of 
the Sons of the Revolution, the Sons of the American Revo- 
lution, and the Society of the Colonial Wars, and the Daugh- 
ters of the Revolution, should communicate with, and, if 
possible, make arrangements with their respective parent 
general societies, for rebates upon dues annually paid in, 
which rebates, if they could be had by our Association, 
would provide us with a suitable and sufficient income each 
year. 

I may add that there has been some informal talk of two 
further donations of tablets, one by an individual and the 
other by a patriotic body, to mark historic sites in this vicin- 
ity. More definiteness concerning which than the above 
statement, it would perhaps be unbecoming to set down at 
this time and place in this report. All of which is respect- 
fully submitted. 

Dated, Buffalo, N. Y., December 4, 1903. 

(Signed) Philip S. Smith, 

Treasurer of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Ass'n. 



120 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

December i6, 1904. 
To the Members of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Asso- 
ciation: 
I have the honor to submit herewith my report as Treas- 
urer of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association for 
the past year: 

I have received the following cash items : 

Dec. 7, 1903 — Donation from Children of the American 

Revolution, Buffalo Chapter $ 100.00 

Dec. 21, 1903 — Donation from Sons of the Revolution, Buf- 
falo Association 75-00 

Jan. 7, 1904 — Donation from Daughters of American Rev- 
olution 100.00 

Total contribution during the past year $ 275.00 

In addition to this we opened the year with 

a balance on hand of 16.17 

Adding which to the sum of the above contributions 

gives us a total of $ 291.17 

We have had no expenses to the Association during the 
past year and I have paid no bills from the funds of the 
Association. I have, therefore, the honor to report that 
there is now in my hands, as Treasurer of the Niagara Fron- 
tier Landmarks Association the sum of $291.17, which sum 
is on deposit to the credit of the Association in the Manufac- 
turers & Traders Bank of this city. 

Buffalo, December 16, 1904. 

Respectfully submitted, 

(Signed) Philip S. Smith, 

Treasurer. 



i 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 121 

November 8, 1905. 
To the Members of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Asso- 
ciation: 
I have the honor to submit herewith my report as Treas- 
urer of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association for 
the past year. I have received the following cash items : 

Dec. 20, 1904, donation from P. S. Smith, (this 
was not deposited, but was paid direct to 

Miss Jeffries) $4-25 

Oct. 17, 1905, donation from George D. Emerson. 12.15 

Making a total of $16.40 

In addition to this we opened the year with 

a balance on hand of 2gi. 17 

Adding which to the sum of the above con- 
tribution gives us a total of $307-57 

We have paid out during the year the following items : 

Dec. 20, 1904, paid Miss D. M. Jeffries for type- 
writing work (this did not come out by 
check, but was paid directly in cash from 
donation of this date) $4-25 

Aug. 31, 1905, paid C. E. Brinkworth for stationery 

and printing 10.25 

Nov. I, 1905, paid C. E. Brinkworth for stationery 

and printing 16.00 

$30.50 

Oct. 17, 1905, paid out the following items: 

Bonnard Bronze Co., for work on court- 
house tablet $5-00 

Express charges to and from New York on 
above tablet 2 . 70 

Wooden box for tablet 70 

Evans-Penfold Co., invitations for unveil- 
ing above tablet 3-75 12.15 

This item of $12.15 was paid in cash from 

donation of this date and not by check. 
This gives a total of payments by the 

Association of $42.65 

Total contributions $307-57 

Total paid out 42-65 

Net balance $264.92 



122 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

I have therefore the honor to report that there is now in 
my hands as Treasurer of the Niagara Frontier Landmarks 
Association the sum of $264.92, which sum is on deposit to 
the credit of the Association in the Manufacturers and 
Traders National Bank of this city. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Philip S. Smith, 

Treasurer. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 123 

REPORT OF 
THE COMMITTEE ON SITES 



December 26, 1900. 

The Committee on Sites, named at the general meeting 
held November 14th, reports as follows : 

To us was assigned the task of specifying spots of his- 
toric interest on the American frontier of the Niagara wor- 
thy of being marked by monument or tablet. 

We have interpreted our field to extend from the south 
limits of Buffalo to Lake Ontario, including all sites within 
the present limits of the City of Buffalo, other cities and 
towns on the Niagara, and the intervening country. 

It is advisable to discriminate between spots of purely 
local interest and those of wider significance. In view of 
the greater interest which attaches to those of the latter class, 
as many are here designated as possible, with the assurance 
of accuracy. Many spots of considerable local interest are 
not mentioned in this report ; the aim being, however, to 
specify the most important. The method of our survey is 
geographical, not chronological. We begin with the south- 
ern limits of the field, and proceed northerly. 

There are, in the southern and eastern portions of Buf- 
falo, several sites known to students of Indian remains and 
ethnology ; it would not be inappropriate to mark these sites 
of burial places, mounds, battlefields, or camps ; but as they 
are prehistoric and of unassignable dates, consideration of 
them is not within our present province. 

In point of known events, South Buffalo is the oldest part 
of the present city. On Buffalo Creek, some three or four 
miles from its mouth, the first Seneca Indian villages were 
established during the Revolutionary War, refugees settl- 
ing there in 1779-80, after Sullivan's raid had destroyed 
their old homes in the Genesee Valley. In this neighborhood 
was built a council house, at which councils and treaties of 



124 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

national importance were held. Associated with it are the 
names of Young King, Farmer's Brother, Red Jacket, and 
other Indian celebrities. Your committee knows at present 
of no data by which to fix the exact location of this council 
house. If its site should hereafter become known, the spot 
merits a memorial tablet. 

Of considerable local interest in this vicinity is the well- 
known site of the Seneca Mission Church, built 1826, aban- 
doned 1843, s^d gradually destroyed during succeeding 
years. Indian Church Street now runs through the old 
churchyard and near the site of the building. Near by were 
the original graves of Red Jacket and other chiefs, and 
of Mary Jamison. Their historic bones were long since 
removed to other resting places — Mary Jamison to Portage 
in 1874, the chiefs to Forest Lawn in 1884 and 1894; but 
the site still remains, somewhat encroached upon, it is true, 
but unobliterated as yet, the empty graves still shaded by 
fine large walnuts and oaks. The acquisition by the city of 
this little plot of historic ground, and its incorporation into 
the Park system, would seem the ideal way to preserve its 
ancient landmarks from early obliteration. In any event, 
the site of the graves should be accurately marked. 

Of even greater interest is the Seneca Mission House on 
Bufifam Street. Built prior to 1831, it is still in good preser- 
vation, with heavy hewn black walnut beams that bid fair 
to withstand the tooth of time for many a year to come. In 
this house, from 1831 to 1844, dwelt the Rev. Asher Wright, 
missionary to the Senecas, and his gifted and devoted wife. 
Here, in 1839, was set up the Mission Press, on which, in 
the Seneca language, from specially made type, were printed 
portions of the Scriptures, hymnals, spelling books, a Seneca 
lexicon — this, at least, was begun — and a newspaper, the 
"Mental Elevator," in the Seneca tongue. This report is 
not the place to dwell upon the importance of the work of 
Mr. and Mrs. Wright. The publication feature alone of 
their varied labors is remarkable enough, as scholars of 
Indian linguistics have abundantly testified, to merit com- 
memoration. It is suggested that a tablet or monument at 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 135 

the Mission House might bear not only an inscription in 
memory of the Wrights, but could record briefly the fact 
that in the vicinity formerly stood the Council House, the 
exact site not being known. It is probable that the exact 
site of Red Jacket's log house, somewhere in this vicinity, 
can yet be ascertained. 

In the list of sites of merely local interest the first white 
settler's house will be expected. That distinction is awarded 
to the house erected by Cornelius Winne in 1789, on what 
is now the east side of Washington Street, at the head of 
Quay Street. 

More worthy of commemoration is the first schoolhouse, 
built in 1807-8 on the west side of Pearl Street, just below 
Swan. It was burned December 30, 1813. The site is now 
occupied by the Dun Building, which offers a substantial 
wall for the affixing of a tablet. 

The first house for religious worship erected in Buffalo 
stood on the west side of Pearl Street, a short distance south 
of Niagara Street ; just how far south is, so far as your com- 
mittee's researches have discovered, a matter of doubt, but 
the weight of evidence indicates that the spot is now covered 
by Shea's Garden Theater. The church was begun Decem- 
ber 18, 1818, and was dedicated January 24, 1819. Prior to 
this date, religious worship was held in dwelling houses, and, 
by the Presbyterians, in a carpenter shop at the northeast 
corner of Main and Huron streets. 

The only dwelling house in Buffalo which was spared at 
the burning, December 30-31, 1813, had been built by Gama- 
liel St. John, beginning January 24, 1810, on Inner Lot 53 
of the Holland Land Company's survey. This was on the 
west side of Main Street, nearly midway between Mohawk 
and Court streets. The middle part of the Becker Building, 
occupied by the H. A. Meldrum Co., covers the site. 

At least one house now within the city limits antedates 
the burning of Bufifalo. In 1813 it was too far from the vil- 
lage to share in the general destruction, and no interest 
worthy of our attention attaches to it because of that event. 



126 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

The Public Library building offers a sightly wall for a 
tablet commemorative of the fact that approximately that 
site was occupied by the first court house in Niagara County, 
built 1810, burned 1813; and by the second court house, 
built 1817, abandoned March 11, 1876, and soon after demol- 
ished — Buffalo being the county seat of Niagara County 
until 1821, when Erie County was erected. The site that for 
over sixty years was the center for the administration of jus- 
tice on the American side of the Niagara may appropriately 
be marked for the edification of later generations. 

Lafayette Square may well contain a tablet to inform the 
public of the more notable events in its history. In front 
of the Eagle Tavern, west side of Main Street, now Nos. 
418 and 420 — just south of Court Street — Gen. Lafayette 
was presented to the public by Gen. Porter, the public recep- 
tion resulting in the present name of the square. In this 
square, among other celebrities, at different times, Henrv 
Clay, Daniel Webster, and Kossuth, have spoken ; and here, 
in 1848, the National Free Soil party nominated Van Buren 
and Adams — the only national political convention ever held 
in Buffalo. 

The former home of Millard Fillmore, on Niagara 
Square, might suitably bear a plate to inform the stranger 
that here resided, after his retirement from office, till his 
death in 1874, a President of the United States, to whom the 
country is indebted, among other things, for cheap postage, 
the enlargement of the National Capitol, and the Perry treaty 
which opened Japan to the world. 

No events in the history of Buffalo have had a greater 
effect upon her development than the first improvement of 
the harbor and the extension hither of the Erie Canal. The 
man who was chiefly instrumental in bringing about these 
events was Judge Samuel Wilkeson ; and two sites are par- 
ticularly associated with his memory ; the entrance to the 
harbor which he helped to create, and the Wilkeson home- 
stead on Niagara Square. 

The Niagara River front, from the Terrace to Black 
Rock, has several sites of interest, especially in connection 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 137 

with the War of 1812. There was a battery, which saw but 
Httle service, on the Terrace. Another overlooked the Niag- 
ara from the edge of the bluff at the foot of Vermont Street, 
the actual site utterly obliterated by the construction of the 
Erie Canal, but now overlooked from the Front, most nearly 
approached a short distance south of the memorial to the 
13th U. S. Infantry. Still another battery was on the high 
bank just south of the foot of Massachusetts Street, and 
within the limits of the present Fort Porter. As in the case 
of the battery just mentioned, it is probable that the con- 
struction of the Erie Canal, and later of the railroad, left 
only empty air where formerly was this defensive work ; but 
the edge of the bluff, at the point indicated, is the nearest 
approach thereto, on the old level. No place in Buffalo com- 
mands a finer view ; a point of popular resort, a tablet at this 
point would be seen by thousands and add the historic to 
the present scenic interest. 

The exact site of the stone keep of Fort Porter — a part 
of the walls of which are still standing, a few feet under the 
present parade ground: — should not be lost ; appropriate, too, 
would be some permanent reminder of the barracks that, 
from 1838 up to the Mexican War, perhaps even later, stood 
on the tract bounded by Main, North, Delaware, and Allen 
streets, and filled a prominent part in the military and social 
life of Buffalo. 

Perhaps the point of greatest historic interest on the 
upper Niagara is the site of the old ferry, in use at least as 
early as Revolutionary times, and by means of which thou- 
sands of the first settlers in Michigan and the Middle West 
passed to their destination. This ferry was at the famous 
Black Rock, which gave its name to the village. The rock 
itself was destroyed in the construction of the Erie Canal. 
It was an outcrop of the local limestone, some 200 or 300 
feet long, extending, a natural wharf, into the river at a 
point approximately opposite the south line of the street 
railway company's buildings, west side of Niagara Street 
below the junction of Front Avenue. The abandoned Fort 
Street marked the approach to it. 



128 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Fort Tompkins, otherwise Fort Adams, a defensive work 
of considerable importance during the War of 1812, occupied 
ground now covered by the southern portion of the street 
railway company's buildings, on the site above defined. 

A third battery of the 1812 period, adjoined on the south 
the foot of Gull Street, most of the site being now occupied 
by a factory. A cannon, found here a few years ago, when 
excavations were made for the foundations of the factory, 
is now mounted in Lafayette Park. 

More important yet was the Sailors' Battery, at the south 
angle of the Niagara and the Scajaquada Creek. The site, 
for many recent years occupied by buildings of the Shepard 
Iron Works, is now bare, surrounded by a high fence, and 
forms part of the yard of a gas tank. It is the least acces- 
sible and most important of the batteries of that period in 
the limits of Buffalo. 

To the east of the present Niagara Street bridge, on the 
south bank of the Scajaquada, is the site of the old Black 
Rock shipyard. Here a part of Perry's fleet was fitted out 
for the battle of Lake Erie. Here, or on the Niagara River 
side, in 1818, was built the Walk-in-the- Water, the first 
steamboat on the lakes ; and here were built many of the 
most famous steamboats that followed her, and many canal 
boats — of the old packet type — prior to 1840. Near by is the 
site of a blockhouse, built 1808. 

That neighborhood has abundance of historic association, 
none, however, of greater interest than the battle which was 
fought at the bridge over the Scajaquada, on August 3, 1814. 
Early in the morning of that day a force of British, under 
Lieut. -Col. Tucker of the 41st British Line, with the design 
of capturing Buffalo and destroying the stores, arms, and 
supplies there, attacked the American forces at Scajaquada 
Creek, at the bridge, a rod or so to the west of where Niag- 
ara Street now crosses the creek. The American forces were 
loosely entrenched on the south bank of the creek, and con- 
sisted of the First Battalion of the First Regiment, com- 
manded by Major Morgan, with a small number of scattered 
auxiliaries. The Americans had partially removed the road- 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 129 

way of the bridge. The first assault of the British failed after 
severe fighting, and a second and very daring attempt was 
made by the British to repair the bridge under fire; this 
attempt also failed. After a short delay a third and final 
assault was made at the bridge, and also about 200 feet 
above the bridge, which, after more severe fighting, was fin- 
ally repulsed, and the British retreated to the Canadian side. 
The total number of men engaged on the British side was 
1,200 and on the American side not more than 350. The 
conflict was sharp, bloody, and, on account of the disparity 
of numbers, especially creditable to the American forces, 
although very great gallantry was displayed by the British, 
especially in the second assault. This battle saved the sup- 
plies at Buffalo, disheartened the British, encouraged the 
Americans, and indirectly aided in the final victory at Fort 
Erie. It is, therefore, worthy in all respects of a proper com- 
memorative tablet. It is suggested that a tablet affixed to 
the present iron bridge might record the battle of Black 
Rock, with allusions to the Sailors' Battery on the one hand 
and the old shipyard and blockhouse on the other. 

But most storied in associations, of all spots on the river 
front in Buffalo, is the Porter House, below Ferry Street, 
the most historic building in the city. Erected in 1816 by 
Gen. Peter B. Porter, it is today, not the oldest, but the best 
house of its age, in Buffalo. Gen. Porter occupied it until 
1836, among his guests being Gen. Lafayette, John Quincy 
Adams, DeWitt Clinton, and other distinguished men, includ- 
ing Red Jacket, and every prominent Indian of the vicin- 
ity. Passing into the hands of Lewis F. Allen, it continued 
for many years a house of distinguished hospitality. Mr. 
Allen's guests included Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Gen. 
Scott, Gen. Macomb, and others not less famous; and a 
member of his household for a time was his nephew, Grover 
Cleveland, Buft'alo's second President of the United States. 
Shorn of much of its surrounding estate, first by the con- 
struction of the canal, then of the railroad, and later by sale 
of land for buildings, the house still stands by itself apart, 
the embodiment of more Niagara Frontier history than any 



130 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

other structure in Buffalo. It gives a distinction to the city 
which no modern structure could supply. It should be pre- 
served. The observation is ventured, that the acquisition — 
or even the lease — of this house by one or more of our patri- 
otic societies, and the dedication of it to commemorative uses, 
would be, however unpractical, an ideal way of memorializ- 
ing the place. 

About two blocks north of the Porter house, or one block 
beyond the building which was the Breckenridge Street 
church (the oldest building erected for a church now stand- 
ing in the city), is the scene of the heavy fighting in the first 
battle of Black Rock. On July ii, 1813, the British made 
their first attempt to capture Black Rock and Buffalo. Cols. 
Bishop and Warren, with 250 men, crossed the river, landed 
below Squaw Island, marched to the Navy Yard on the Sca- 
jaquada and occupied it before they were discovered. They 
burned the barracks and blockhouse there, and the barracks 
at Fort Tompkins. Maj. Adams, in command at Black Rock, 
sent to Buffalo for reinforcements. One hundred regulars, 
under Capt. Cummings, the same number of militia under 
Maj. Adams, thirty volunteers from Buffalo Plains, under 
Capt. Hull ; Capt. Bull's company from Buffalo, and thirty 
Indians led by Farmer's Brother, met the enemy in line near 
Fort Tompkins, the present site of the Street Railway Com- 
pany's power house. After sharp fighting the English gave 
way, and retreated to their boats, the Americans pursuing; 
the heaviest fighting taking place just south of Auburn Ave- 
nue, near Mason Street. The English lost about 100 killed, 
wounded, and missing, and fifteen prisoners. The American 
loss was three killed and five wounded, among the latter 
being the Seneca chief Young King. This engagement might 
be mentioned on a tablet commemorative of Fort Tompkins, 
placed in the wall of the Street Railway Company's building ; 
or at the Porter house, which stands on ground fought over. 
Mason Street, mentioned above, is an obscure, picturesque 
little street one block long, from Breckenridge to Auburn, 
between Niagara Street and the New York Central Railroad. 

Before leaving Buffalo, it may be remarked that although 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 131 

the business of this report is with sites and not with people, 
yet any project of historic commemoration in Buffalo would 
be conspicuously incomplete which gave no thought to Jos- 
eph Ellicott. The generous tract of land which he reserved 
for himself was bounded by Eagle, Swan, and Main streets, 
running east to what is now Jefferson Street. The name of 
the founder of the city is preserved to us in Elhcott Square, 
the office building on a part of the above-named tract; and 
in the name of a street. The Goodrich house, built in 1823 
or '24, near the northeast corner of Main and High streets, 
was begun by Mr. Ellicott, and he occupied it a short time 
in 1825. Removed by Mr. John C. Glenny, nearly twentv 
years ago, to Amherst Street, it still stands there, one of 
Buffalo's most beautiful houses, and the only one in the city 
directly associated with the founder of Buffalo. Ellicott 
Square makes the name familiar; upon it, or within it, an 
inscription might suitably be placed. The ideal memorial, 
in addition thereto, would be a statue of Joseph Ellicott in 
the center of the court. 

Before leaving Buffalo and passing down the river it is 
well to note that Buffalo Plains, especially that portion of 'u 
known as Flint Hill, has many associations connected with 
the War of 1812. The original graves of the soldiers now 
buried in the well-marked grave in the Park meadow, were 
not far from the banks of the Scajaquada, on the old Gran- 
ger place. The Buffalo Historical Society has already placed 
a cannon, suitably inscribed and protected, at the old soldiers' 
burying ground on Eleven Mile Creek, near Williamsville. 
If this organization choose to extend its survey as far as 
that village, it should mark the Evans house, said to have 
been built — in its oldest portion — in 1797, and generally 
regarded as the oldest house in Erie County. It was used by 
Gen. Winfield Scott as headquarters for a time during the 
War of 1812; prior to 1823 it was a tavern; was deeded to 
Lewis Ellicott Evans, December 26, 1823, and is still owned 
by the Evans family. 

Passing north along the Niagara, there is nothing that 
demands our attention at the Tonawandas. The first site of 



133 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Maj. Noah's Ararat, a refuge city for the Jews, is well 
knewn and might be marked for the edification of the curi- 
ous. Your committee says "first" site. The reason thereof 
is apparent to anyone famihar with Lewis F. Allen's enter- 
taining history of the matter, wherein he tells of the peripa- 
tetic monument which he, and not Maj. Noah, built at 
Whitehaven, opposite Tonawanda. 

One other site on Grand Island may be mentioned here — 
Burnt Ship Bay, at the northern end, where, in 1759, after 
the loss of Fort Niagara, the French burned and sunk two 
of their vessels, to prevent them from falling into the hands 
of the British. 

Of all the historic sites on the Niagara, first in popular 
interest is the spot where La Salle, in 1679, built the Griffon, 
the first vessel, other than a bark canoe, to navigate the upper 
lakes. This is on the eastern bank of the arm of the river 
known as the Little Niagara, about opposite the middle of 
Cayuga Island; a short distance south of the mouth of Ca- 
yuga Creek. Approximately on the same spot, now on the 
Angevine farm, the United States, about 1804, established a 
shipyard, where a vessel was built and others were repaired 
for some years. Happily, the topography of the spot can- 
not have suffered much change through the lapse of years. 
A monument on the spot will be near much-traveled high- 
ways, and plainly visible from the windows of passing trol- 
ley car or railway train. 

From this point northerly to Lake Ontario, historic sites 
not only abound, but relate, many of them, to a period whose 
history is not shared by Buffalo ; the period of French occu- 
pancy, from 1678 — one may say, from 1626, thus including 
the visits of the first white men known to have reached our 
river — to 1759. The same points, in many cases, are asso- 
ciated successively with British and American domination. 

The so-called Tunnel or New Factory district, on the 
southern edge of the city of Niagara Falls, embraces sev- 
eral points that demand attention. 

First — Schlosser dock, where, about 1816, was built a 
storehouse by Porter, Barton & Co., it being the upper end 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 133 

of the new portage from Levviston, and the great shippmg 
point above the Falls for a vast amount of freight to and 
from the West. There are two sites on the American shore 
especially associated with the Patriot War of 1837. One is 
the spot in Breckenridge Street, Buffalo — in front of the old 
church — where Gen. Winfield Scott planted his cannon ; the 
other, and more important, this old dock. Here it was, on 
the night of December 29, 1837, that the British seized the 
"Caroline" — one man being killed on the dock in the fray — 
towed her into the stream, set fire to her and sent her blaz- 
ing toward the Falls. This affair, which threatened to 
involve the United States and Great Britain in another war, 
can most appropriately be marked on the site of the old dock. 
Another site to note in this connection is the site of Mack- 
enzie's camp on Navy Island. 

Second — A short distance below the site of the old dock 
is the site of Fort Schlosser, built by the British in 1760. 

Third — Nearer yet to the Falls, the site of Fort Little 
Niagara, built in 1759. 

Fourth — Near this, the old stone chimney, an ideal land- 
mark as it stands, but threatened with destruction. It was 
built by the French, as a part of their barracks, about 1750. 
Ten years later, the French buildings being destroyed, the 
English attached to the chimney a large dwelling, using a 
framework which the French had some time before prepared 
for a chapel at Fort Niagara. This house, later known as 
Steadman's, was burned in 1813, the chimney being once 
more left, as a monument to the vicissitudes of time. 

On the present Portage road, a quarter of a mile or so 
from the river, can still be traced the outlines of one of the 
blockhouses erected in 1764 by Capt. John Montressor. It 
was the last of several built by him to protect the road for 
the passage of Bradstreet's army. 

Near the upper end of the State Reservation is the site 
of Frenchman's Landing, the upper end of the old Indian 
trail about the Falls, and the termination of the earliest por- 
tage. Here, about 1745, a blockhouse and storehouse were 
erected by the French. 



134 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Within the bounds of the State Reservation, ahhough 
interesting associations attach to many points, there is not a 
site known to possess particular historic significance. The 
estabhshment of the Reservation, as a park free to the world, 
is the most significant event that has happened there. A 
tablet, recording the names of those chiefly interested in 
bringing about that consummation, and the date when it was 
opened free to the world — July 15, 1885 — erected at a sightly 
point in the Park, would add to the gratification of visitors. 
For this, the cooperation of the Park Commissioners should 
be enlisted. 

A short distance north from the northerly boundary of 
the Reservation, is the site of the Indian Ladder of days 
before settlement. It was a tall cedar, with branches lopped 
off about a foot from the trunk, fastened to the face of 
the cliff. By this means, Indians and early white visitors 
descended to the w^ater below. 

Midway on the road to Lewiston are Bloody Run and 
the Devil's Hole, the scene of the massacre of September, 
1763. Here the Senecas ambushed a British supply train, 
on the first return journey over the reconstructed portage 
road from Fort Schlosser to Fort Niagara, only three of 
about 100 men escaping. A little farther north, the same 
Indians ambushed a British relieving force of tw^o com- 
panies, hastening up from the site of Lewiston, only eight 
escaping the second slaughter. A blockhouse was built by 
Montressor, in 1764, on the north side of the Run, near the 
edge of the clifif. The present trolley line runs within a few 
feet of it. 

In this connection a word may be added regarding some 
points to which historic associations are, as we believe, 
erroneously imputed. In this class belong the cave and 
so-called Council Rock in the Devil's Hole glen ; and Hen- 
nepin's Point, in the State Reservation. 

The edge of the escarpment or "mountain" overlooking 
Lewiston has many associations, some of them the most 
important in our frontier history. This w'as the last of 
Father Hennepin's "three mountains," up wdiich w-ere toil- 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 135 

fully carried the anchors and cordage for the Griffon. Here 
is the site of the first of the blockhouses which Montressor 
built in 1764. Here was the upper end of the incline 
for hoisting goods from the river below — which may be 
regarded as the first railroad in America — and here is the 
site of the garrisoned storehouses built by the French in 
1 75 1. Here, too, in 1812, was built the earthwork known 
as Fort Gray. 

Passing down the mountain, we come, on the Lewiston 
plateau, to the site of Joncaire's cabin, built 17 19, soon 
enlarged to a fort called "Magazin Royal," France's first 
permanent location on the river, which endured for more 
than a year, and through which was obtained permission to 
build what became Fort Niagara. Near it were Hennepin's 
Landing, and the cabin which he built in 1678; and very 
near are the sites of the small fort built by the British about 
1764; of the lower end of the old incline — the actual site 
obliterated by subsequent works, latest of them being the 
construction of the new bridge ; of the wharves built by the 
British about 1764; of the storehouses for goods in transit, 
which were built by the French in 1751, and maintained with 
increased garrisons by the British from 1759 to 1764; and 
the approach to the old Lewiston Ferry. 

On the height east of Lewiston is the Tuscarora Reser- 
vation, the home of the first settlers on the Holland Pur- 
chase — a part of the Tuscarora tribe, who settled here in 
1780, a spot with many associations of Revolutionary and 
pioneer days. Near by, below" the mountain, are the sites 
of Gen. Van Rensselaer's camp, the first military camp on 
this frontier during the War of 1812, and of "Brant's 
church," built about 1780 on the Ridge road; the first build- 
ing on the frontier, outside of Fort Niagara, used as a Prot- 
estant church. Around it was the village of the Mohawks, 
who dwelt here during the "hold-over" period. 

On the hill above the Lewiston Ferry landing, right in 
front of the Barton homestead, is the site where Col. Win- 
field Scott planted the battery which protected the Ameri- 



136 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

can troops in their first invasion of Canada on the morning 
of October 13, 1812. 

On the river bank, between Lewiston and Youngstown, 
are the well-known Five Mile Meadows, where on the night 
of December 18, 1813, the British landed for their attack on 
Fort Niagara, which they captured and followed up with 
the devastation of the whole American frontier, 

A little farther along, we come to La Belle Famille, 
where, in 1759, Sir William Johnson routed the French force 
from the West which was hastening to relieve Fort Niagara. 
A portion of this site is now included in the grounds of Mr. 
O. P. Letchworth. 

Within the present limits of Youngstown, on the shore, 
was the Salt Battery, a principal point in the line of defen- 
sive outworks for Fort Niagara during the War of 1812. 

We have now arrived at Fort Niagara, the most historic 
spot on the river; with more history of importance than all 
the rest of the frontier put together. It cannot be ade- 
quately indicated, even, in this report. The following brief 
syllabus must suffice: 

Here is the presumptive site of La Salle's house, built 
1669, burnt by the Senecas 1675 ! here, in 1679, La Salle 
marked out and built Fort Conti ; here was Fort de Denon- 
ville, built 1687, abandoned 1688; here still stands the "cas- 
tle," the foundations of which were laid in 1725, the oldest 
masonry on the frontier. From this building, enlarged and 
modified from time to time, first the French and then the 
English, up to 1796, held sw^y from Albany westward, over 
a vast wilderness empire. Here still stand the French bar- 
racks, built about 1750; the magazine, built 1754, coming 
into wide fame in 1826, from the incarceration therein of 
William Morgan of anti-Masonic fame ; the bakehouse, built 
1762; and two blockhouses, antedating the Revolution, built 
respectively in 1771 and 1773, the best specimens of their 
style of architecture in America. Here, too, is the site, 
believed to have been lately determined, of the grave of Gen. 
Prideaux, killed in the siege of July, 1759 ; and of the 
old chapel. It is desirable that Government permission be 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 137 

secured in order that excavations may be made. Federal 
cooperation should also be enlisted in the erection of tablets 
or monuments on the fort reservation. 

East of the fort may still be seen the British parallels 
built for the siege of 1759. And four miles to the eastward, 
on the shore of Lake Ontario, our site-hunting tour ends at 
Prideaux's Landing, where, in 1759, landed the army that 
was to capture Fort Niagara, and thus aid materially in end- 
ing the rule of France in the New World. 

It is not the purpose of this association of societies, and 
therefore no part of the duty of your committee, to desig- 
nate historic sites on the Canadian side of the Niagara. But 
as the cooperation of our friends across the border has 
already been asked in the good work — in which, by the way, 
they long since made good beginning — and for the sake of 
approximate completeness, the following list of important 
sites on the Canadian side is appended : 

Fort Erie, built by Montressor in 1764; built again, 1778; 
rebuilt in 1790, again in 1791, and a fourth time in 1807, 
though none of the latter times in the exact former location. 
A modern association with this vicinity was the battle of 
Ridgeway, in the Fenian invasion of 1866. Well known, 
near the fort, are the sites of three British siege works and 
a line of earthworks, protected by abattis, extending inland 
for nearly half a mile, and further protected by two block- 
houses of the 1812 period. Passing down the river, we come 
to the battlefield of Chippawa, the "tete du pont" battery of 
1812, on Chippawa Creek, and the site of Fort Chippawa, 
built about 1790. The great battle of Lundy's Lane — Bridge- 
water or Niagara — is already commemorated by an observa- 
tory overlooking the historic and well-cared-for burying- 
ground. The site of the battle of Queenston Heights is 
marked by the splendid monument to Gen. Brock ; ade- 
quately marked, too, is the spot where he was killed at the 
foot of the slope. On the heights, near the great monument, 
may still be traced the outlines of Fort Drummond, and on 
the very edge of the clifif the redan battery of their period. 



138 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

In Queenston still stands the house in which was printed the 
first newspaper published in Upper Canada. Below, on the 
river bank, is the site of Vrooman's battery, of the War of 
1812. A short distance above the old town of Niagara, are 
the remains of Fort George, built 1796, enlarged later and 
playing a most important part during the War of 1812. In 
a bastion of this fort, it will be remembered. Gen. Brock 
was first buried. The town of Niagara is full of historic 
walls and places. Among the old buildings are Navy Hall, 
not now on its original site, built 1792, in which was held 
the first session of the first Parliament of Upper Canada. 
Still standing, too, are the old barracks used by Butler's 
Rangers during the Revolutionary period. Fort Missis- 
sauga, at the angle of lake and river, was built by the British 
in 1814. The old lighthouse, and the British battery at 
Montreal Point, built 1759, may complete the rough list, 
which is only intended to show how rich in historic sites is 
the Canadian side of the Niagara. 

Our survey of the whole field suggests the following sites 
as most worthy of the first attention of the association, others 
to be taken up from time to time as may be found feasible. 
First, the shipyard of the Grififon ; in Buffalo, the sites of 
the early courthouses, the St. John house, the first school- 
house, and the Fillmore house; all located on much fre- 
quented thoroughfares. The bridge at Black Rock, the Por- 
ter house, and the site of Fort Tompkins, are of at least 
equal importance with the Buffalo group just named. As 
the work progresses the old Mission House should receive 
early attention. Below Niagara Falls, the Devil's Hole 
should be one of the first to be marked. Two inscriptions 
are suggested for it: one to be placed on the bank above, 
at the exact scene of the attack; the other below, at the 
Gorge Road station leading up into the glen ; for this has 
become an approach to the place for thousands of tourists 
who do not go thither by the upper road; and a point at 
Lewiston commemorating the various sites directly adja- 
cent thereto and noted above. The old chimney above the 
Reservation is the best landmark for its site that could be 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 139 

devised. A protecting railing and suitably inscribed tablet 
affixed thereon, are suggestions which, with this report as 
a whole, are respectfully submitted. 

Frank H. Severance, Chairman, 

Buffalo Historical Society: 

Peter A. Porter, 

Niagara Frontier Historical Society. 
Henry R. Howland, 

Sons of the Revolution. 

Philip S. Smith, 

Society of Colonial Wars. 

Horace Briggs, 

Sons of the American Revolution. 

Mrs. Mary N. Thompson, 
Daughters of the American Revolution. 
Mrs. Oscar L. Harries, 
Children of the American Revolution. 

A. W. Hoffman, 

Society of the War of 1812. 

J. Boardman Scovell, 

Men's Club of Leunston. 



140 NIAGARA FRONTIER 



REPORT OF 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

1 902 



November 13, 1902. 
To the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Associatioji: 

Ladies and Gentlemen — Pursuant to the by-laws of 
this organization, the Executive Committee is made up of 
the officers of the Association and the chairmen of the sev- 
eral standing committees, and as such we beg leave to sub- 
mit the following report : 

In addition to the general meetings of the Association 
a number of meetings of the Executive Committee have 
been held, at which details for carrying out the plans adopted 
at the general meetings have been perfected. Under the 
auspices of our society five tablets have been placed in posi- 
tion commemorating sites and events suggested by the Com- 
mittee on Sites in their interesting and valuable report. 
These tablets were erected and dedicatory exercises held as 
follows : 

May 24, 1902 — At the Angevine farm, near La Salle, 
Niagara County, marking the ship yard, where in May, 
1679, was launched the "Griffon," the first vessel to sail the 
upper lakes. 

July 26, 1902 — On the H. A. Meldrum store. Main 
Street, Buffalo, N. Y., commemorating the St. John house, 
the only dwelling spared by the British at the burning of 
Buffalo, December 30, 1813. 

August 2, 1902 — On the Niagara Street bridge, over Sca- 
jaquada Creek, Buffalo, where on August 3, 1814, was 
fought the battle of Black Rock. 

September 13, 1902 — At the Devil's Hole, on the Niagara 
Gorge railroad, where, September 14, 1763, occurred the 
Devil's Hole massacre. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 141 

October ii, 1902 — On the R. G. Dun building, Buffalo, 
the site of the first schoolhouse built in Buffalo, of date 
1807-8, and destroyed at the burning of Buffalo, December 
30, 1813. 

The tablet and boulder on the Angevine farm were 
donated to the Association by the Niagara Frontier His- 
torical Society, and we are indebted to the Niagara Gorge 
Railroad Company for the one at the Devil's Hole. Mr. 
Jackson Angevine generously transferred to the Association 
eight feet square of ground covered by the Griffon tablet 
and boulder. 

At the unveiling of each of the tablets suitable exercises 
were held and our obligations are due to the following per- 
sons for historical addresses : 

Professor Thomas Bailey Lovell and Herbert P. Bissell, 
Esq., at La Salle; Professor Horace Briggs at the St. John 
house ; George D. Emerson and the Hon. Peter A. Porter 
at the Scajaquada Creek bridge; Professor Arthur Detmers 
and Albert E. Jones at the Devil's Hole, and the Hon. 
Charles R. Skinner, Professor Henry P. Emerson and Mas- 
ter George Tilden Coleman at the pioneer school house. 

Devotional exercises were conducted by the following 
clergymen : Rev. Luke A. Grace, C. M., Rev. John C. Ward 
and the Rev. E. H. Dickinson. Whenever practicable, the 
national song "America" was sung by those present, Hon. 
George A. Lewis and Frederick Howard, Esq., kindly giv- 
ing their services as leaders. Upon one occasion Mr. George 
A. Stringer presided and at the last one the Hon. T. Guil- 
ford Smith. Charles W. Wilcox, Esq., of Niagara Falls, 
furnished an appropriate poem at the La Salle ceremonies. 

In addition to those already named, the Association is 
indebted to the following parties for courtesies of various 
kinds, at the several occasions upon which tablets were 
unveiled and a proper acknowledgement was given at the 
time : 

Jackson Angevine and his family, H. A. Meldrum, E. H. 
Farnsworth, Herbert P. Bissell, Vice-President of the Niag- 
ara Gorge Railroad ; E. E. Nicklis, Superintendent of the 



142 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

same road ; John J. McWilliams, Edward L. Brady, Col. 
Francis G. Ward, Commissioner of Public Works ; John G. 
Wickser, John H. Smith and George L. Stearns, Superin- 
tendent. 

We feel, however, that a very large measure of gratitude 
is due the press of Buffalo for the very friendly spirit in 
which the work of our Association has been treated. With- 
out exception they have been most generous, not only in 
space given, but in setting forth in a complete and satisfac- 
tory manner what our organization has done and is doing 
and what it expects to do in the future. Recognizing, as we 
do, in the press one of the great up-builders of modern civili- 
zation, and feeling on our part that our work is a most 
worthy one, we cannot express our gratification in too strong 
terms for the great aid we have received from that source. 
Our citizens generally have been friendly in their attitude 
towards the Association, the only comment made, as a rule, 
being that it is strange the work was not undertaken sooner. 

In selecting persons for unveiling the tablets, we have 
endeavored to preserve the historical associations connected 
with the several events and to name those who by family 
ties or for other reasons were connected directly or indi- 
rectly with the event or site commemorated. In this we 
consider we have been quite successful. 

Our financial exhibit is very satisfactory. Enough money 
has been contributed to meet all obligations incurred and 
leave a handsome margin with which to commence the next 
year's work. For the details we beg to refer you to the 
report of the Treasurer. 

The following places or sites have been listed for marking 
as soon as the weather will permit, and we recommend that 
the Committee on Tablets be instructed to proceed in the 
order named in placing tablets or monuments pursuant to 
the general plan of our Association : 

The old Seneca Mission House in Buffam Street ; the 
Library building, corner of Washington and Clinton streets, 
where originallv was the first court house of Erie and Niag- 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 143 

ara counties, and near the corner of Washington and Quay 
streets, the site of the first house erected in Buffalo. Cor- 
respondence should also be opened with the War Depart- 
ment relative to visiting and marking the several points at 
Fort Niagara, the most prolific in places of interest of any 
one spot on the Niagara frontier. Then as fast .as time and 
funds will permit, proceed with the other sites named by the 
committee in their report. 

One other contribution to the work in which we are 
engaged, while not a donation to our Association, nor even 
in the exact line on which we have thus far proceeded 
(namely, the marking of sites), but based on the higher 
plane of preserving the historic structures of a by-gone age 
(to which in due time we ourselves hope to turn our atten- 
tion), is deserving of mention. 

The old Fort Schlosser chimney, so-called, the oldest 
piece of perfect masonry on the entire frontier and ante- 
dated only by the foundations of the castle at Fort Niagara, 
having been built in 1750, stood on the lands of the Niagara 
Falls Power Company. 

When, last summer, its location was required for a manu- 
facturing site, that company most generously, at its own and 
that a large expense, had it taken down, its surface stones 
having been carefully marked, and reerected it in perfect fac- 
simile, on a site that is in a street which is owned by the com- 
pany, and where it will be safe from demolition for all time ; 
and that location is not over 150 feet from its original one. 
The special thanks of the Landmarks Association should be 
extended to the Niagara Falls Power Company, for thus 
preserving the most historic landmark of the central portion 
of the American Niagara Frontier. 

In conclusion, we congratulate you upon the success of 
our joint efforts to preserve the identity of historic sites 
along the Niagara Frontier. With no expectancy of reward 
save only that inner satisfaction which arises from the per- 
formance of a patriotic duty you have cheerfully borne your 
part. If the performance of that duty has created a larger 



144 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

interest in local history and a more profound respect for 
the energy, the toils and the heroism of the early comers to 
our border line, our labors will be richly rewarded. 

Trueman G. Avery, 
Mrs. John Miller Horton, 
George D. Emerson, 
Philip S. Smith, 
George A. Stringer, 
Frank H. Severance, 

Executive Committee. 



REPORT OF 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

1903 



December 4, 1903. 
To the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association: 

Ladies and Gentlemen — Since our annual meeting In 
November, 1902, two members of the Landmarks Associa- 
tion have died, viz, Mrs. Mary N. Thompson of Buflfalo, N. 
Y., and the Hon. Thomas V. Welch of Niagsra Falls, N. Y. 
Mrs. Thompson was a representative from the Daughters of 
the American Revolution and died in this city, November 
24, 1902. Mr. Welch was a representative from the Niagara 
Frontier Historical Society and died at Niagara Falls, Octo- 
ber 20th of the present year. Both were well and widely 
known, universally esteemed and had long taken an active 
part in matters relating to the Niagara Frontier. 

Mrs. F. W. Abbott, in November, 1902, sent in her resig 
nation as a member of the Association and a representative 
from the Daughters of the American Revolution. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 145 

At the last annual meeting a resolution was adopted 
authorizing each president or regent of a society represented 
in the Association to appoint, if he or she should so elect, 
two additional representatives from such society in the Fron- 
tier Landmarks Association. Under this resolution, and 
also to fill vacancies, the following persons have been named 
as members of the Association : 

O. P. Letchworth, E. M. Clark, 

G. Hunter Bartlett, Dr. J. E. Bates, 

T, Guilford Smith, Charles H. Williams, 

Edward D. Strickland, Dr. Matthew D. Mann, 

G. Barrett Rich, Mrs. W. Caryl Ely, 

Frank B. Steele, Mrs. Samuel S. Spaulding, 

Henry J. Pierce, Mrs. Trueman G. Avery, 
Mrs. Richard W. Goode. 

At a meeting of the directors of the Niagara Frontier 
Landmarks Association, incorporated, held February 7, 1903, 
all these individuals were duly elected members of the incor- 
poration, as well as all of the original members of the Asso- 
ciation who did not sign the articles of incorporation. 

Charles B. Wheeler becomes a member of the Association 
ex-officio, having been elected president of the Buffalo Asso- 
ciation, Sons of the Revolution, but the vacancy caused by 
the death of the Hon. Thomas V. Welch has not been filled. 
The balance of the membership continues the same. 

The Association has been duly incorporated under the 
laws of the State of New York with a properly constituted 
board of directors. A meeting of the board was held Decem- 
ber 9, 1902, at which time the present officers of the Asso- 
ciation were duly elected as officers of the incorporation. 
This policy, we believe, should be continued for the present 
at least and thus avoid' any duplication of officers or dif- 
ferent officers for the Association and the incorporation. 

Two tablets have been placed in position under the aus- 
pices of the Association during the past season. One at 
Lewiston on the spot where Gen. Scott stationed a battery 
of light artillery at the opening of the battle of Queenston, 



146 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

October 13, 1812; and one on the International Railway 
buildings in this city, Niagara Street, opposite School Street, 
marking the site of Fort Tompkins, a large and important 
fortification of the War of 181 2. The Scott battery tablet 
was presented by Mrs. Kate Barton Wheeler, a grand- 
daughter of Maj. Benjamin Barton, U. S. A., who owned 
and occupied the grounds, in which the tablet was placed, 
at the time and previous to the War of 1812. The Foit 
Tompkins tablet was the gift of the International Railway 
Company through its President, Hon. W. Caryl Ely. 

Appropriate exercises were held at the unveiling of these 
two tablets, those participating being the Hon. Peter A. Por- 
ter, Frank H. Severance, Esq., Hon. W. Caryl Ely, Mrs. 
John Miller Horton, Rev. Joshua Cook, Rev. J. W. Ross, 
Miss Katherine Wheeler, Miss Mary Wheeler, Miss Marian 
Ely, Rev. George G. Merrill, Trueman G. Avery, Esq., Fred- 
erick Howard, Esq., J. Boardman Scovell, Esq., and George 
D. Emerson. 

For its financial condition reference is made to the report 
of the Treasurer of the Association, Philip S. Smith, which 
is herewith presented. The smallness of the balance of funds 
on hand at the present time constrains your committee to 
announce that it will be necessary during the coming yea? 
to ask for contributions to continue the work so happily 
carried on during the past two years. 

Having thus briefly rehearsed the work of the Asso- 
ciation since its last annual meeting, it may not be inap- 
propriate to outline some, at least, of the expected accom- 
plishments of the coming twelve months. 

One tablet has been procured and paid for by the Asso- 
ciation, and it has been a great disappointment not to have 
unveiled it during the present year. It is to be placed on 
the Library building, corner of Washington Street and 
Broadway, and commemorates the first court house of Erie 
and Niagara counties. A number of petty delays occurred 
in connection with this tablet, perhaps not necessary to re- 
capitulate here, until the season for outdoor exercises had 
passed, and we reluctantly postponed its dedication until 
warm weather in the spring, when it will be one of the first 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 147 

tablets to be unveiled. The Children of the American Revo- 
lution have raised funds for a tablet to commemorate the 
old Seneca Mission House on Buffam Street, and as this 
should be considered in connection with the project of hav- 
ing what now remains of the Indian cemetery grounds on 
the same street made a part of the park system of Buflfalo, 
which cannot be consummated for some months yet, it was 
not deemed wise to take any action regarding this tablet 
during the past year. We expect, however, to have both 
matters adjusted in the early spring. We have also to 
acknowledge the courtesy of another friend of the Associa- 
tion, Mr. O. P. Letchworth, in tendering a memorial for 
one of the most important events in all our frontier history ; 
viz., the battle of July 24, 1759, which was followed the 
next morning by the surrender of Fort Niagara to the Brit- 
ish, ending French power in this part of the new world. Mr. 
Letchworth's grounds near Youngstown cover a portion of 
the battle field, and it is quite probable that the next anni- 
versary of the battle will witness the dedication of a suitable 
memorial. 

Other projects also demand our attention, among which 
may be named the proposed Military Park at Fort Niagara, 
the marking of historic points within the fort itself, a con- 
tinuation of the movement to have the Indian cemetery 
grounds on Bufifam Street made a part of the city's park 
system, and other important movements, but our success 
thus far leads to the flattering hope that as fast as time and 
means will permit, and proper attention can be taken from 
necessary duties to attend to these, that they will all be 
brought to a successful issue. 

Trueman G. Avery, 
Mrs. John Miller Horton, 
George D. Emerson, 
Philip S. Smith, 
George A. Stringer, 
Frank H. Severance. 

Executive Committee. 



INDEX 



Adams, Fort, at Buffalo, 87; history, 93. 

Adams, Major, at Fort Tompkins, 95. 

American Revolution, sons of the, representatives, 110-112-115; 
daughters of the, representatives, 110-112-115; children of the, 
representatives, 110-112-115. 

Angevine, children, decorate tablet, 25; farm and residence, 2-4; 
Jackson, donation, 6. 

Association, Niagara Frontier Landmarks, organization, 1-2-3; offi- 
cers, 2-3; officers and committees, 109-111-114; officers and direc- 
tors, 113-116; representatives, 110-112-113-115-116. 

Austin, Benjamin H., attorney-at-law, 102. 

Avery, Trueman G., elected president, 2-3 ; at Griffon tablet cere- 
monies, 4; at Black Rock, 32; at Lewiston, 74. 

Babcock, George R., attorney-at-law. 102. 

Bancroft, George, extract from writings. 16. 

Barker, George, Supreme Court judge, 98-101. 

Barker, Zenas, chairman of meeting for first school house, 67-70. 

Bass, Lyman K., attorney-at-law, 102. 

Barton-Wheeler, tablet, ']2-']yj\; mansion at Lewiston, T2-T2); cere- 
monies, 74. 

Barton, Benjamin, residence, 76-80. 

Bennett, Philander, County judge, 98. 

Bird, Miss Grace E., unveils battle of Black Rock tablet, 32. 

Bird, William A., Jr.. and Cyrus Remington, Masters, decorate bat- 
tle of Black Rock tablet, 32. 

Bishop, Colonel, attacks Black Rock, 94-95- 

Bissell, Hon. Herbert P., address at Griffon tablet ceremonies, 21 ; 
presents Devil's Hole tablet, 45; address at Court House tablet 
exercises, 98. 

Black Rock, battle of, tablet, Z2\ address by George D. Emerson, 2>Z\ 
village of, 34-94- 

Blakeslee, Colonel, services, 28. 

Bowen, Dennis, attorney-at-law, 102. 

Brant, John, at battle of Queenston Heights, 85. 

Briggs, Prof. Horace, address St. John House, 27. 

Brown, Major General, army in Canada, 35. 

Bryant, William C. attorney-at-law. 102. 

Buffalo, first school house, tablet, 66; history of, 67; ceremonies at 
unveiling, 67-71. 

Buffalo Historical Society, representatives, 110-112-115. 

Buffalo, village of, 34. 



150 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Bull, Captain, at Fort Tompkins, 95. 

Chapin, Colonel, services, 28-29. 

Chrystie, Colonel, at battle of Queenston Heights, 84. 

Cleveland, Grover, President, 102. 

Clinton, George W., Superior Court judge, 98-101. 

Coleman, Master George Tilden, address at the school house tablet 
ceremonies, 67-70. 

Colonial Wars, society of. representatives, 110-112-115. 

Commercial development of the west, address by Hon. Herbert P. 
Bissell, 21. 

Committee on sites, report, 123. 

Cook, Bates, comptroller and congressman, 105. 

Cook, Rev. Joshua, officiates at Lewiston, 74. 

County judges, list of, 98. 

Court House tablet, ceremonies, 97; inscription, 99. 

Cromley, Hon. Charles E., address at court house tablet ceremonies, 
98. 

Daniels, Charles, Supreme Court judge, 98. 

Daughters of the War of 1812, representatives, 116. 

Davis, Noah, Supreme Court judge, loi. 

Detmers, Prof. Arthur, address at Devil's Hole tablet exercises, 47. 

Devil's Hole, tablet, 43 ; programme of exercises, 43 ; massacre, 49- 
57-58-59-61-65; ceremonies, 55-56. 

Efner, E. D., services, 28. 

Ely, Miss Marion, unveils Fort Tompkins tablet, 88. 

Ely, Hon. W. Caryl, resolution, i ; presents tablet, 87-88-90. 

Emerson, George D., elected secretary, 2-3 ; address at Griffon tab- 
let ceremonies, 7; battle of Black Rock address, 33; accepting 
Devil's Hole tablet, 46; accepting Barton-Wheeler tablet, 74-81; 
accepting Fort Tompkins tablet. 88-91. 

Emerson, Mrs. George D., unveils Court House tablet, 99. 

Emerson, Prof. Henry P., at school house tablet ceremonies, 67-70. 

Erie county, erected. 105. 

Erie county bar, prominent members, 102. 

Executive Committee, reports, 140-144. 

Farmer's Brother, at battle of Fort Tompkins, 95. 

Fillmore. Millard, President, 102. 

Finance Committee, 109-111-114. 

Fiske. John, historian, 16. 

Folsom, Oscar, attorney-at-law, 102. 

Foster, Elijah, services, 28. 

Ganson, John, attorney-at-law, 102. 

Gardner, Miss Nancy Strong, unveils St. John House tablet, 26. 

Genesee county, territory of, 105. 

Gillett, Joshua, appointed on committee, 70. 

Grace, Rev. Luke A., officiates at Griffon tablet ceremonies, 5-25. 

Gray. Fort, ramparts. 77-78. 

Griffon, anniversary, 2 ; shipyard and tablet, 4. 

Grosvenor, Seth, services, 28. 

Grover, Martin, Supreme Court judge, 98-101. 

Gurney, William H., attorney-at-law, 102. 

Haight, Albert, judge Court of Appeals and County judge, 98- 
101-107. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 151 

Hall, N. K., County judge, 98-102. 

Haven, Solomon G., attorney-at-law, 102. 

Hennepin, Father, narrative, 13. 

Horton, Mrs. John Miller, elected vice-president, 2-3; at Griffon 
tablet ceremonies, 2-6; at the Devil's Hole tablet ceremonies, 
43-55; at Fort Tompkins ceremonies, 87-88-89; Court House 
tablet ceremonies, 97. 

Hotchkiss, William, county judge, 98. 

Howard, Frederick, leads music at Black Rock ceremonies, 32; at 
the Devil's Hole, 44; at Lewiston, 74; at Fort Tompkins, 88; 
at Court House, 98. 

Hull, Captain, services, 28. 

Hull, Absalom, services. 28. 

Humphrey, James M., Superior Court judge, 98; attorney-at-law, 
102. 

Hurlburt, Rev. Rollo F.. oflficiates at Court House tablet ceremonies, 
98. 

International Railway Company, presents tablet, 3. 

Johnson, Sir William, reports, 50; calls Indian councils, 51; sug- 
gests charter for Lewiston, 76. 

Joncaire, Chabert, picketed house, 76; cabin, 77. 

Jones, Albert E., address at the Devil's Hole tablet ceremonies, 52. 

Judges, county, list of, 98. 

Kane, Robert, services, 28. 

Lamont, George D., Supreme Court judge, 98. 

Landon, Joseph, appointed on committee, 70. 

Laning, Albert P., attorney-at-law, 102. 

La Salle, Robert, Cavelier de, sketch of, 12; death, 16. 

Lewis, George A., at Griffon tablet ceremonies, 9. 

Lewis, Governor, signs law, 76. 

Lewis, Loran L., attorney-at-law, 102. 

Lewiston, Men's Club of, representatives, 110-113-115. 

Lewiston, village of, 75-76-78; militia at, 83. 

Lockport, county seat, 105. 

Lockwood, Stephen, County judge, 98. 

Love, Thomas C. County judge, 98. 

Lovejoy, Mrs., killed at burning of Buffalo, 29. 

Lovell, Prof. Thomas Bailey, address at Griffon tablet ceremonies, 9. 

Marshall, Orsamus H., historian, 6. 

Marvin, Richard P., Supreme Court judge, 98-101. 

Masten, Joseph G., Superior Court judge, 98-101. 

Mayflower and Griffon, poem, 18. 

Mayflower Descendants, Society of the, representatives, 116. 

Men's Club of Lewiston, representatives, 110-113-115. 

Merrill, Rev. George G.. officiates at Fort Tompkins tablet cere- 
monies, 88. 

Militia of Western New York in War of 1812, address by Hon. 
Peter A. Porter, 39. 

Miller, William F., attorney-at-law, 102. 

Morgan, Major Lodowick, U. S. A., wreath, 33; at Black Rock, 
35-36 ; military record, 37. 

Nelson, Captain, services, 76. 

Niagara county, erected, 105. 



152 NIAGARA FRONTIER 

Niagara Frontier Historical Society, presents Griffon tablet, 3; rep- 
resentatives, 110-113-116. 

Niagara Gorge Railroad Company, presents Devil's Hole tablet, 3. 

Officers and committees, Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, 
109-111-114. 

Officers and directors, Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, 
113-116. 

O'Flannigan, Betty, inn, 77. 

Order of the Cincinnati, representatives, 115. 

Pickett's charge, at Gettysburg, 78. 

Porter, Augustus, County judge, 98-105. 

Porter, Barton & Co., firm mentioned. 74-79. 

Porter, Hon. Peter A., addresses at Griffon tablet ceremonies, 2-6; 
at Scajaquada creek bridge, 39; at Lewiston, 79; at Fort Tomp- 
kins, ^-92. 

Porter, General Peter B., at battle of Fort Tompkins, 94. 

Pratt, Samuel, appointed on committee, 70. 

Putnam, James O., attorney-at-law, 102. 

Queenston Heights, stormed, 78; battle of, 83-84. 

Ramsdell, Eleanor, unveils school house tablet, 71. 

Representatives in Landmarks Association, 110-112-113-115-116. 

Revolution, Children of the American, representatives, 110-112-115. 

Revolution, Daughters of the American, representatives, 110-112-115. 

Revolution, Sons of the American, representatives, 110-112-115. 

Revolution, Sons of the, representatives, 110-112-115. 

Riders, Rough, at San Juan, 78. 

Rogers, Henry W., attomey-at-law, 102. 

Ross, Rev. John W., at Lewiston, 74. 

Sage, Asahel, services, 76. 

Scajaquada creek, naval yard, 93. 

Schlosser, portage at, 79; fort, 83. 

School house, Buffalo's first, tablet, 66; building, 67; subscriptions 
for, 68; ceremonies at unveiling of tablet, 69. 

Scott Battery, 72-73. 

Scott, General Winfield, mentioned, 72-7;^ ; at battle of Queenston 
Heights, 84-85. 

Scovell, J. Boardman, address at Lewiston, 74-75. 

Seeley, Lieutenant-Colonel, services, 28. 

Seneca Indians, account of, 48-52. 

Severance, Frank H., address at Lewiston. 74-83. 

Sheldon. James, County judge, 98. 

Sites, Committee on, 109-111-114; report, 123. 

Skinner, Hon. Charles R., at school house tablet ceremonies, 66-71. 

Smith, Rev. Charles H., officiates at court house tablet ceremonies, 

97- 
Smith, Rev. David M., missionary, 76. 
Smith, James M., Superior Court judge, 98. 
Smith, Philip S., elected treasurer, 1-2; reports as treasurer, 117- 

118-119-120-121-122. 
Smith, Hon. T. Guilford, presides, 66-70. 
Smythe, General, at Buffalo, 83. 

Society of Colonial Wars, representatives, 110-112-115. 
Society of the War of 1812, representatives, 110-112-115. 



LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. 153 

Sprague, E. Carlton, attorney-at-law, 102. 
Steele, Dorothy, unveils school house tablet, 71. 
Steadman, John, at the Devil's Hole, 48-49. 
St. John, Gamaliel, buys property, 30. 
St. John House, tablet, 26; appearance of, 30. 
St. John, Mrs. G., at burning of BuflFalo, 29. 
Strong, John C., attorney-at-law, 102. 

Stringer, George Alfred, address at the Devil's Hole tablet cere- 
monies, 44. 
Stryker, James, County judge, 98. 
Sweeney, James, services, 28. 
Tablets, committees on, 109-111-114. 
Tablets, report of committee, 2-3 ; erected, 89. 
Talcott, John L., Supreme Court judge, loi. 
Tompkins, Fort, tablet, 87; history, 93; battle at, 94-95-96. 
Tracy, Albert H., attorney-at-law, 102. 
Treasurer's reports, 117-118-119-120-121-122. 
Tucker, Lieut.-col. John G. P., at Black Rock, 36. 
Tupper, Samuel, County judge, 98. 
Turner, O., extract from writings, 17. 

Van Rensselaer, Colonel, at battle of Queenston Heights, 83. 
Van Rensselaer, General, at Lewiston, 83-84. 
Verplanck, Isaac A., Superior Court judge, 98. 
Walden, Ebenezer, County judge, 98. 
Walker, Jesse, County judge, 98. 
Ward, Rev. John C, officiates at the Devil's Hole tablet ceremonies, 

43-44- 
Wheeler, Catharine and Mary, unveil Barton-Wheeler tablet, 74. 
Wheeler, Mrs. Albert J., presents Barton-Wheeler tablet, 3, 73, 74, 81. 
Wilcox, Charles W., poem, at Griffon tablet ceremonies, 18. 
Wilkeson, Samuel, County judge, 98. 
Willett, James M., attorney-at-law, 102. 
Wool, John E., at battle of Queenston Heights, 84. 



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